Chalk Pastel Dinosaurs

I haven't taught this lesson since about 2019 and boy, have things gone downhill! My Grade 4-6 class really struggled with both manipulating the chalk, drawing the dinosaur and creating a creative landscape background for their dinosaur. 

For context, our Grade 4 students go on a field trip each year to the famous Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Drumheller. Set in the rugged Alberta badlands, the museum displays one of the world's largest collections of dinosaurs. Nearby is also Dinosaur Provincial Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The park is well-known for being one of the richest dinosaur fossil locales in the world. Fifty-eight dinosaur species have been discovered at the park and more than 500 specimens have been removed and exhibited in museums around the globe. There's also incredible hoodoos you can hike around nearby. 

Our students go for an overnight trip to the museum where they get to sleep in the museum under the dinosaurs! I've been on this field trip and it's incredible!

Drumheller is also a cute town to visit in the summer, as it has loads of cute dinosaur sculptures scattered throughout the downtown. 

Anyway, back to the project! Students first practised drawing a dinosaur and then drew their good copy on 12 x 18" black construction paper. They outlined everything with a black oil pastel. Then they coloured it using chalk pastels. This was the messiest I've ever seen the kids be, with the boys absolutely covering their shirts in pastel. I've never seen anything like it before and will have to re-think how I teach chalk in the future. Overall, he boys maturity has dramatically declined since 2019. 

When it came to the background, there was little imagination and I really had to coax the kids. Honestly, I think this is symptomatic of a generation being raised in front of screens. They want to do everything fast and have little patience for subjects requiring sustained lengths of work and patience, like art. 

I have been reading the book The Anxious Generation, by social psychologist Jonathan Haidt and it has been really eye opening and confirms what I have been seeing as a teacher who has taught for over 25 years. 

You can see my kids art from 2019 in my previous post HERE. What do you think?

Some Grade 5,6 results: 

 

Spectacular Autumn Supermoon Landscape

This is a beautiful Fall lesson incorporating various media. Students learned all about supermoons and we had a supermoon the day we were finishing these last week!

I found the lesson HERE on the "Kids and Glitter" website. 

She shows all the steps so it was very helpful!

I taught this to my mixed class of Grade 4,5,6 students. 

It was the perfect level of challenge for all of them.

Start with basket style coffee filters (from Dollarama).

Kids crumple them up then gently flatten them. Paint them in a mottled technique, mixing colours, using watercolours. Let dry. Doesn't take too long. 

On 12x18" construction paper, lay down a bunch of chalk pastels in 

whatever 'twilight' colour they want. Blend it all out gently using a tissue. 

Then, using the same size green and black construction paper, slowly tear those into landscape hills. 

Do the same with black construction paper but tear it a bit shorter than the green.

Glue down the green first.

Students starting deciding where they wanted their supermoon.

Glue down the black layer on top pf the green layer. Glue down the supermoon- it's trickier to glue because it's so thin and textured and a bit fragile. We used glue sticks for this step.

Then draw on some tree trunks and branches in pencil.

We painted our trees using black acrylic paint and thin brushes for the branches. 

Using a Q-tip and tempera paint, students dabbed on fall coloured leaves. 

I gave them the choice of yellow/orange or burgundy/purple. 

95% chose burgundy/purple!

Some early finished artworks:

 

Chalk Pastel Easter Eggs

Here's a messy but fun Easter themed project that my Grade 4-6 students recently finished.

I showed them how to draw and shade an egg using chalk pastels. 

I've posted this lesson previously HERE, where I normally use clear glue. 

This time, to save time, we used black oil pastels for the drawing step.

Students started by doing a quick practice sketch planning out their patterns. 

Then they drew it on large 12 x 18" black construction paper and outlined all the 

pencil lines with a black oil pastel.

Then I showed them how to use a white chalk pastel to add the highlight down the center first. 

Then they continued colouring the eggs and blending gently with their fingers.

This is what they completed by the end of an 80 minute period. 

The next class, they tackled the grass and the sky.

Some Grade 4,5,6 finished artworks!

 

Macarons in chalk pastel

This was a quick but effective lesson on form and shading, using chalk pastels.

I demonstrated how to draw a macaron to Grade 7-9 students. 

I showed them the ruffled 'foot' part and how to do a soft highlight.

They drew them nice and large on 9 x 12" construction paper. 

Then they coloured and blended them using chalk pastels. 

Finally, they were cut out. 

Most students just managed to finish in our 80 minute block. 

As you can see, strawberry was a favourite flavour!