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!