A Bad Case of Stripes - 1st version

In my 2nd and 3rd grade classes, I began the year by reading the book A Bad Case of Stripes by David Bannon. It's about a girl on her first day of school, so the timing was appropriate, and it deals with not being afraid to be yourself, to be unique or different - perfect themes for the art room. So here's what we did in grade 3 (grade 2 lesson to follow next week when it's complete):

This was a quickie project. Kids in grade 3 drew themselves with a Sharpie on some clear contact paper I have. Then we peeled the back off the contact paper, stuck on stripes of brightly colored paper, and then cut out the whole person. Some kids used a pattern, others didn't. If was quick and fun. We've been hanging them up on a zebra-striped bulletin board.

We're now creating an animal with a bad case of stripes, the zebra. The 3rd graders are studying South Africa in class, and and since my son was there, all June and July, I have great photos of animals, including the zebra, from his safari, and am excited to share them with the kids. My son probably won't be home until Christmas break, but when he's home, he's promised to come in to school and talk to these 3rd graders about his experience in Africa.

Anyhow - about the zebras lesson - while I don't normally use templates, I couldn't resist the zebra project posted by Anne on her blog http://useyourcolouredpencils.blogspot.com/2010_08_01_archive.html and have just started it with the 3rd graders.