2nd Grade: Giraffes Can't Dance

Several art teachers have posted this project on their blogs, and I just had to try it out with my 2nd Graders.  We began by reading the story, Giraffes Can't Dance.  Then we practiced drawing sketches of giraffes in as many dance poses as we could think of.  The second day we painted our backgrounds.  I had them mix blue and black tempera to get a dark night sky.  They left a circle of white and painted around it.  While the paint was still wet, they began painting a circle with white tempera, making it grow larger and larger until it began to mix with the blue background.  This gives the appearance of a ring around the moon.  Then they glued on a strip of yellow construction paper, painted over it with green tempera and used the back of the paintbrush to scratch grass lines into it.  Finally, they did a little splatter painting with white tempera mixed with water to get some stars.  The last day, students drew their final dancing giraffe on yellow construction paper with pencil first, then colored patterns and outlined with oil pastels.  Check out some of these amazing dance moves!!!