At this time of year, as much as I absolutely love my job, I am finding myself clenching my fists and swallowing screams due to the terrible effects that cabin fever and a very long winter can have on the average 6 year old. Sometimes there is no other word, but "Monsters!" Thus the inspiration for our latest first grade drawing and painting project. Thanks to the captivating power of paint, my fist clenching has been greatly reduced, and the art room is full of an altogether different kind of monster.
We started by reading the book The Story of Frog Belly Rat Bone by Timothy Ering. One of my all time favorite books. Frog Belly Rat Bone is a monster built out of junk by a boy who needs help protecting the precious treasure he discovered. Students love the story and were instantly inspired to create their own monster. We drew our monsters first and then outlined with sharpie marker. Students were challenged to use "shapes not sticks" and to use their whole paper.
The final steps are coming up soon. Students will create a background around their monster or on a separate sheet to glue their monster into. The final step will be a writing component to answer the questions-What is your monster's name? What is your monster's job? Many have already named their monsters without any prompting...I love to see the writing component of art becoming a habit.
