To start up the year, 1st graders talked about prehistoric animals, primarily the WOOLLY MAMMOTH!! Our element focus on this project was Texture, Line and Space. Our DSS friends taught us a bit about the woolly mammoth, which you can find below! After we had our intro, we did a guided drawing (I draw a line, they draw the line) to create our mammoths. We drew with oil pastels right off the bat (after discussing that they are permanent so we need to be SUPER careful). We use pastels because they make us draw bigger and because they work by leaving a layer of oil on the paper that helps with "creating a force field/wall" for our paint not to run. We drew with white pastel on our paper to create snowflakes and stars for our very first "resist" as well!! The kids were so excited to see the magical snow and stars appear as they painted over them. We covered the topic of a horizon line being where the sky meets the ground and had to learn to "hop over lines" so that we could make our icebergs in the background without crossing out our mammoths. Here's some photos of our process! They'll be done once we re-outline them this week!
ABOUT WOOLLY MAMMOTHS
The woolly mammoth is an extinct species of the
elephant. They were about the same size as the
modern African elephant. Woolly mammoths were
covered in fur so they were prepared for cold,
especially during the last ice age. Their long tusks
were useful for fighting and foraging.
Woolly mammoths lived at the same time as early
humans. It is theorized that they became extinct
because of habitat and climate changes and being
hunted by people.
Fun fact: A newborn woolly mammoth calf weighs
about 200 pounds!
Learning Objectives:
Today I will learn about WOOLLY MAMMOTHS, so that I CAN create artwork inspired by this PREHISTORIC animal.
Today I will learn about TEXTURE, so that I CAN etch short, repeating LINES in my wet paint that look like shaggy fur.
Today I will learn about SPACE, so that I CAN create DEPTH by drawing a clear HORIZON LINE and distant ICEBERG for my LANDSCAPE background.
