Giant Giraffes! By Mrs. Escalante's First Grade Class

We made these giant giraffes as part of the first grade students' expo project on animals. Each class chose a different animal, and of course this class chose giraffes! 

First, we drew giraffes from observation in pencil on very large paper (18" X 24"). I then had them go over the sketch with permanent marker and color in the pattern selectively with red-brown and sepia oil pastels. 

Then, the students painted the body yellow and created a background on another large piece of sky blue paper. I showed them how to blend red, orange, yellow, and brown to create the color of the grasslands in Africa. We created tree silhouettes based off of pictures of trees from Africa. 

After the giraffes were dry, the students cut and glued them onto the background. This was one of my favorite projects! It was a great lesson on overlapping, foreground, and background.