4th Grade Fantasy Characters

It is towards the end of the year, and my 4th grade classes have big numbers. This makes it difficult to do 3D projects since there isn't much space. I lost my big storage closests, so I finding space to even store 3D projects is hard at the same time as well. Some of my kids really like to draw dragons and these other random characters. I tried to think of something that would gravate towards them so I decided to do Fantasy creatures.

Materials Needed

6 x 18" Paper
Pencils
Sharpies (Thick/Thin)
Watercolors
Colored Pencils
Paintbrushes

Day 1#- I introduced Salvador Dali to my students who was famous for the Surrealism movement. This is how I tied in my Art History component for the unit. I talked my students about the creatures they were to create needed to have a head, body, and legs. I gave my students a 6 x18" piece of paper that was folded into 3 parts. This would help kids with proportion and making sure their creature was to scale. (1. Head 2. Body. 3 Legs). I also provided them with a handout of some animal heads to get their imagination started.

Day #2- I discussed Surrealism with my students again, and encouraged them to continue working on the body and legs. Once students finished drawing their actual creatures, I also had them think of the background. What kind of environment would you see most likely see their creature? I distributed both thin and thick sharpies so they could go over their pencil drawings.

Day #3 I had the students color in their works with colored pencil, we recently finished a unit on creating value, so they knew how to create it. I had them color their creature with colored pencil, and then use watercolor to paint the backgrounds. They turned out really well! I would definitely do this project again!