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Monday, April 23, 2012

1st Grade Dancing Giraffes

This is probably about the fourth time I've done this project with my 1st graders, but it always turns out so cool so I keep doing it. This project is based on the book Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andreae. 


This project has two parts that I really enjoy. First, the kids love making the backgrounds. I show them how to do a little wet on wet painting to make their moon "glow." I also have them layer some green over a dried layer of yellow before scraping off some of the green with the back of their brush. Making the grass this way during the demo always gets a nice little collective gasp of surprise from my classes. The second part I really enjoy is the personality of the giraffes that the kids come up with. I try to give them as much freedom as possible and I get some really good results.


Check out the lesson plan here!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do the kids cut out the girrafe's and glue them onto their background? I want to do this with my class!

Zach Stoller said...

They sure do. It's a great project!

Mrs. Seitz said...

Hi Zach! I'm in the middle of doing these with my 1st graders! I've been eyeing this project for a while and when I saw your take on it I couldn't help but try it! I really like your blog and have also found your bottle cap project explanation really helpful! I did that with 5th Grade last year! (Dave and Judy told me about it and told me to look up your blog)! Could you add my blog to your blog list? (Just FYI I'm Becca's friend Jessica :) )