2nd Grade Wild Things - Special Display!

Here are a few of the pieces displayed at the Dublin branch of the public library!

I would like to start this post by thanking Loren Scully from the Dublin branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library. She specifically sought me out because of her desire to display artwork from students in Dublin City Schools. I dropped off over 100 pieces of artwork from this project on Monday afternoon and they will be hanging in the children's area of the library through the end of February. Thanks Loren! Your efforts are greatly appreciated by my students, their parents, and me!


This is a project that I've done for a few years now and I really like it. It is similar in artistic concept to a fourth grade project that I posted recently. I'm looking forward to changing that project next year to make it a little more difficult. 


I start by reading Where the Wild Things Are and having the students discuss how Maurice Sendak created his wild things. We also talk about how Sendak is the author and the illustrator of the book. These are important concepts for this grade level and this is a great time to reinforce those ideas. Students discovered that Sendak's wild things are made up of lots of different animal parts. They had a great time creating several of their own wild things. On the second day of the project, the 2nd graders chose their favorite wild thing to press into a 4x6 piece of printing foam. 


We took 2 class periods to print. Each student made two prints each day. I'm working with 45 minute class periods with zero time in between classes, so having plenty of time for cleanup is pretty important with a messier project like this. My kids absolutely love to clean anything in the art room, so it's easy to find helpers to clean brayers and plexiglass. I'm sure parents are super jealous of how helpful their children are here. I'm not so sure that enthusiasm for cleaning translates to the home!


The last day is spent writing artist statements, cutting out the prints, mounting them to construction paper, and using construction paper crayons (they are super bright even on dark paper) to write "Wild Things." This project is absolutely loved by the students and comes out well every year. 


Check out my lesson plan here! It's free!!!