1st Grade-Chinese Dog Cages

On one of my many visits to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, I came across this piece. It is a dog cage that was said to be made for one of the emperor's pet dogs. This is where I got the idea to create a whole lesson based upon it. I did this lesson last year and it turned out really cute. It so happens that in the Chinese Zodiac, that 2018 is the year of the dog. I figured this would a great opportunity to do this lesson again.

Materials Needed
 12 x18" Construction Paper
Gold/Bronze Tempera Paint
Paint Brushes
Brown/Black/White Tempera Paint
Oil Pastels



The lesson started with me reading "Ruby's Chinese New Year" to my students. In this book, Ruby goes on a journey to visit her grandmother for Chinese New Year. Along the way, she meets all of these different animals (these animals are the ones found in the Chinese Zodiac). The kids got really into it and then I showed them the dog cage. I talked about what a Chinese "Emperor" was and what the cage was used for. We then started to paint the actual dog cage using gold tempera paint on a 12 x18" piece of red construction paper.











The second day of this lesson, I reviewed what an emperor was. I also talked about shape because we were painting the actual dog that was going to be in the cage. Using pencils, I passed back their paintings from the previous week, We started with an oval for the body, circle for the head, and four long ovals for the legs, We then painted the ears and tail. I gave students several different colors of tempera paint (white, brown, dark brown, and golden-yellow).

The third day of the lesson was adding the features of the dog (eyes, nose, mouth) using oil pastels. I encourage my students to add a collar, crown, and items for their dog. I also have them decorate the cage!

4th Grade-Underground Railroad Freedom Quilts

Materials Needed
12x 12" Black Construction Paper
4x 4" various colors of construction paper
3x 3" various colors of construction paper
metallic markers (optional)
colored pencils
glue
scissors

For Black History Month, I decided to try Freedom Quilts with my 4th graders. The Underground Railroad actually ran across here in the state of Maryland, therefore I thought this would a great topic! Harriet Tubman was born on the Eastern shore of Maryland as well, so I wanted to focus on famous African-American figures from the area. Freedom Quilts played a significant role in the Underground Railroad because they served as signs/signals for those runaway slaves that were running away towards their "freedom." I discussed this on the first day and showed students the different signals used on the freedom quilts, and what they stood for.  ( see below)



Students looked at this handout and filled it out to help plan how their designs would turn out


Day 2/3-Using their handouts, I had the students fold their 12x 12" pieces of black construction paper two times to make 4 equal  6x6" squares.  I gave students several different colors of  4x4" squares to start creating their chosen signals. I demonstrated how they could fold the 4x4" squares diagonally to make triangles. I also gave students 3 x3" squares in case if they wanted to layer different colors on top to add more color. They were also allowed to use metallic markers to add some more "pizzaz" if they wanted. The students seemed to really enjoy this project!