2nd Grade Eric Carle Style Animals

My 2nd grade students just finished a project about Eric Carle. I've always liked Carle's books and my students all know who he is. I started this one out by reading one of Carle's many books to my classes. They then sketched a simple picture with an animal as the main focus. On the second day of the project, each student created two textured papers that could be used in their project. They were able to use all kinds of unconventional tools to paint with to make some really cool textures. On day three, students began cutting up their textured paper in order to make a collage. It took one more day to add details and write artists statements. 


This project came out fairly good, but I think I'll end up changing it around a little next year. I think my students would be more successful if they were just doing one large animal  and no or very little background. Many students ended up making their animals so small they couldn't really get any details in. Of course it's not like I told them over and over to make sure they made their animals as big as they could. Wait...I did tell them that!


Unfortunately, I don't have a digital copy of this lesson. Usually, I would have time to type something up and post it. Right now, I have my art show coming up in just a few weeks and there are more pressing matters going on right now! Please let me know if you have any questions. This project is pretty straight forward.