A Seusstacular Event

In honor of Dr. Seuss's birthday, which was March 6th, I had my kindergarten class create Dr. Seuss inspired fish after the book 'One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish'. I got the idea for this lesson from a fellow blogger at
www.deepspacesparkle.blogspot.com which had loads of great ideas and loved the results. As a class we discussed what an author and illustrator is and how Dr. Seuss created his fish. My students had some good observations of his illustrative style noting that they fish often had hair, funny facial expressions, were usually the primary colors, and did 'silly' things like ride bikes, juggle, and sleep in beds. I led them in guided practice to draw the fish making sure to emphasize that they draw it as big as the paper (which was 12x18") and then we painted them. We painted the background with red stripes and for those students who needed extra support I drew lines in pencil for them to follow and paint over which helped them quite a bit. Once all was dry, we cut the fish out, added details and glue-sticked them onto the background. Quite adorable I think!

*Note about the details-At the beginning of the year I spend a day and teach a lesson on 'details' in art. The lesson focuses on making meaningful marks instead of 'scribble-scrabble' as my kids call it. I make a poster of everything we discuss and hang it periodically throughout the year for lessons that I want to make sure my students add details to.