Artreach...creates: "Old Bear" prepares to Hibernate!

This week in Art Through Children's Literature we read "Old Bear" by Kevin Henkes. This is a fabulous children's book that tells the story of a bear hibernating during the winter and dreaming of being a cub again. He imagines the the springtime flowers, the summer butterflies, and the fall leaves blowing. After reading, we discussed how animals prepare for the cold winters by eating lots of food or stocking up like squirrels do. We even talked about how some, like geese, fly south for the winter to warmer climates.

This project took one class and used the following supplies:

Black and/or Blue Construction Paper-9"x12"

Manila Oaktag-9"x12"

Leaves

Tempera paint in warm colors, white, brown, and black

Scissors

Glue

1. We began this art project by taking on the tedious, but fun, task of learning how to draw a bear in two different poses, walking and standing. We started by drawing the snout, then the head, and finally the body on manila oaktag.

2. Next, we used brown tempera to paint our bears. Students were shown how to add orange to add "highlights" to the parts of the bear that the sun hits, such as his head, back, and the front of his legs. We used the back of our brushes to scrape the wet paint to create a furry texture. We used bold black paint to outline our bears and add eyes and fur ruffles.

3. While our bear paintings dried, we used a variety of real leaves to print leaves on dark blue or black backgrounds. We simply painted the underbellies (veined part) of the leaves with warm oranges, yellows, reds, and browns, and then turned them over and pressed them to the paper. A paper towel placed on top of the leaf while pressing helps get an even print and keeps hands clean!

4. Lastly, we carefully cut out our bears, leaving a bit of the manila border to make them "pop" off the dark paper, then used glue sticks to attach them to their habitats.

Here are some of our fabulous "Old Bears!"