Giraffe's Can't Dance paintings

This is a great project to teach the idea of both figurative-type drawing and creating a sense of movement. I try and teach it every year to my Grade 5's. The book, that this lesson is based on, is also very charming and gives a wonderful message about being yourself. 

I posted about this lesson a couple of years ago and you can see more of the steps HERE.

I tend to change up the background every year or so and have done the background paper using watercolour, liquid tempera and tempera cakes (seen below). 

The students draw their own giraffe dancing in a pose of their choice on regular white paper. 

They colour this using coloured pencils and outline it with a fine tip Sharpie. These are then cut out and glued carefully onto their background paper. 

This display is always a crowd pleaser and makes everyone who views it smile!

First: paint a background sky and ground and hills with paint of your choice. 

I demonstrate how to fade out a full moon.

Draw your giraffe in pose of your choice. Outline in sharpie. Colour. Cut out.

Some Grade 5 artworks: