Indian Elephants, 4th Grade

These Indian Elephants were inspired from several elephant lessons that I found online.  One was MaryMaking and the other was, Painted Paper.

 To begin this lesson, we talked about the importance of Elephants in the Indian culture.  I also showed my students images of decorated elephants from the Indian Elephant Festival, which is an annual event in India.

To draw our elephants, I showed my students step by step how to draw an elephant.  After this, my students used a Crayola washable marker to trace their elephant.  Once the elephant was traced, students used water and a paintbrush to do a simple wash over the elephant.  This turned the marker into a simple watercolor.  Next, students cut their elephants out and glued it to their paper.  Lastly, students used oil pastels and construction paper to decorate their elephants.

These turned out WONDERFUL!  I just love them!