Expressive Monkeys
Today I worked with the newest students in the school. I had Maria and Gina’s class of five year olds, there were only six students in the group today. For one student this was their second day at school!
We did the same lesson that was such a hit with the Pātangatanga students at the end of last year. The students made monkeys based on the story 'Grumpy Monkey’ by Suzanne and Max Lang. I found the inspiration for this lesson over at Deep Space Sparkle.
First the students watched a video of the Grumpy Monkey story. We talked about emotions, moods and facial features. The students drew a monkey hanging from a branch and drew an expression of their own choosing for the monkey’s face. Some were happy, some sad and other monkeys were excited.
The students had a wonderful time using the dyes to cover the overlapping, repeating leaves in the background of their artwork. Crayon/pastel resist remains one of my all time favourite things to do with students. It is simple yet so beautiful and the students always get a kick out of pushing the wet dye around the paper.
When the dye was dry the students painted their monkeys using tempera block paints. We only had one brown colour of tempera paint. The students thought it would be boring to have the tree branches and the monkey all the same colour so I showed them how to mix orange, yellow and red with the brown to create different types of browns
The finished monkeys are so very cute. The students were so proud of their artwork that they wanted to take their artworks home straight away! I think that they will look lovely all hanging next to each other in the classroom for a little while before being sent home for good. We hope you like them!
