Saturday Art: Animal Art

This week we learned about different animals, and how they might use their bodies to make art. We started by settling in for story time, and then got our bodies moving by learning some animal yoga poses. Each pose had a corresponding animal. As I helped them get into their poses, they looked at a visual of their pose next to the animal it resembled. I asked them about the animal, what they sound like and what they do. The students responded by making enthusiastic animal noises and modifying their poses to move like the animal does (moving their arms up and down the way a bird flaps its wings, etc.)

Next we got into small groups. Each student had to identify the shape on their name tag, and group with the other students with the other students with the same shape. At the first station, students thought about how they would make art if they were a snake. I asked them, what if you were a snake, and didn’t have any arms, how might you paint? The students responded that they could use their tongues, or their tails, with paint. I put out a tin with paint, and asked what colors they’d like where. Once we were all set up with paper, I gave them strings, ribbons, and yarn, and told them to try dipping it in the paint and making a work of art, as though they had a snake’s tail. The students enjoyed getting a little messy, and showed pride in their designs

At the second station, I supplied students with stamps of different animal footprints. They started on a large collaborative piece, and enjoyed it so much that they requested their own papers to make more. I asked them what animal they thought the different prints came from, and they replied with imaginative answers: “a chicken!” “ I think this one looks like a dinosaur”.

At the third station, students thought about what it would be like to have an elephant’s trunk. They made watercolor splotches on their paper, and then used a straw as an imaginary trunk, to blow their colors in different directions across their paper. Some had trouble at first, and asked for help. I gave them another demonstration, and showed them how to make sure my brush had enough water on it, before getting my “trunk” close to the surface of my paper to blow. As they continued working, their work became increasingly successful and they were excited each time their colors moved, or ran into one another to make new colors. Some asked which colors they could use to make purple, and they continued to mix red and blue throughout class to make different shades.

At the end of class, we played freeze dance, and the students got into their favorite animal yoga pose each time the song stopped. We then sat together and talked about what we learned, and which station everyone liked best.