Beetles

I really love the simplicity of these beetle drawing completed by Grade 3 students. First, students discussed and looked at photos of darkling beetles. We discussed the main parts of a beetle's body (head, thorax, abdomen, three pairs of legs, etc). I demonstrated how to make a symmetrical drawing of the beetle by folding the paper in half (as seen below) and only drawing half of the beetle. Fold the paper in on itself and rub the back of the drawing with the handle of a pair of scissors. The image will transfer to the other side. I gave this only as an option to the kids- they were free to draw the whole beetle with out folding the paper.

Once the drawing was complete, they could outline it with a black marker.

Then they colored them in nice and dark with black colored pencils. I demonstrated how to create some highlights by leaving certain areas white- to help show how hard and shiny a beetle's body is.