2nd Grade - Hooray for Fish!

This is inspired by the adorable book Hooray for Fish! by author illustrator Lucy Cousins. This is a fabulous book for a painting project! After getting inspired by reading the book and looking closely at her gorgeous illustrations, we started painting our fish with black tempera on blue construction. We started by painting a large eye and drawing our fish body behind it.

Day 2, we started carefully painting in the fish with many tempera paint colors. I added a very little bit of white to each color to make the paint a bit more opaque. This brightens up the colors on the blue construction paper.

Day 3 -  We painted some patterns on the solid areas. They turned out FABULOUS! 

1st Grade - Rainbow Fish!

This lesson is an original by Julie Werkman, who I student taught with 25 years ago. It is a great lesson for teaching the elements of art! Line, shape, color, texture, and value are all worked in! 

Any fishy book of your choice maybe the inspiration! 

First, we paint some light to dark blue waves on a large 18x24 blue construction paper for our fish bowl. 

I pre-trace the fish bowl on the back of the paper before the next class, then students cut out and add seaweed and rocks!

After painting a 9x12 paper with rainbow, or just in a colorful way, we trace a basic fish shape on the paper. Students design their top and bottom fins, plus scales and tale.

 Once we cut out the rainbow fish, we glue it on and add some metallic smaller fish! I precut small metallic fish for everyone, students decorate and design their fish and glue them on! I add a tiny piece of cardboard to the back of the metallic fish, gives them a little pop out look. 

Finished!