1st Grade Dancing Giraffes

 This is one of my favorite first grade projects.  It is based on the book "Giraffes Can't Dance" by Giles Andreae.  After reading the book, each student draws a dancing giraffe.  I had some kids come up with some pretty smooth dance moves this year.  The giraffes are colored with colored pencil.  On another paper, kids paint either a blue or purple night sky with a nice glowing moon (using white for the moon while the sky is still wet).  The grass is first painted entirely yellow.  Once the yellow drys, I have the kids paint green over the yellow.  When I'm demonstrating this step, I get a lot of puzzled looks from the kids.  I then immediately flip the brush over and use the handle to scrape away some of the wet green paint to reveal the "grass."  Finally the giraffe is cut out and glued onto the background.  This is a project that is nearly 100% successful.


For the lesson plan for this project, click here!