Peacocks in oil pastel

Grade 3 artwork

Grade 3 students are studying India in Social Studies. I have an "Art of India" unit that I teach at this time in order to cross-collaborate and reinforce with the kids what they're learning in their regular classroom. I absolutely love Indian art- so rich and decorative.

So we looked at one of India's symbols: the beautiful peacock. 

I helped teach them how to draw a stylized peacock. This type of drawing is accessible to all levels of artist. They were free to expand on this drawing and add as much detail as they wanted. They practised first on scrap paper (see below) then they drew their good copy on black construction paper (9 x 12"). They outlined all their pencil lines in black oil pastel. Then they coloured everything in using oil pastels (we use Pentel brand and I'm pretty happy with them- they're inexpensive as well.)

Once the drawings were complete, I mounted them on colourful construction paper 

and glittered the border gold for some extra sparkle!

Grade 3 work: