ABC & T: Lonely Firefly Chalk Pastels

Welcome to another week of my e-course art class! I continue to learn so much from Patty at Deep Space Sparkle. I have so many ideas spinning through my head...I know, what's new!! This week one of the techniques we learned was how to incorporate chalk pastels into arts integration. I didn't realize all of the cool things you could do with chalk! I actually used it in my room last year. The kid's favorite activity was the Klee Cats from Patty at Deep Space Sparkle. You can purchase the PDF at teacherspayteachers.com. The other activity I used chalks for was our Eric Carle author's study unit. Each week we read a different story by Eric Carle and discussed the main character of each and character traits. Then, we recreated the main character using several different art mediums: wall paper, fabric samples, construction paper, oil pastels, watercolors, and CHALK! The vibrant color of chalk on black paper is beautiful. So, I stuck with that idea for this week's homework assignment but added more detail per what Patty taught me! Of course Brooke wanted to join along so I have her finished firefly as well!

Eric Carle Inspired Fireflies- Using Chalk Pastels

First Grade

Objectives: TSW recall the main character of the story.

TSW recall character traits.

TSW infer the character's likes and dislikes.

TSW use chalk pastels and oil pastels/glue.

TSW blend chalk pastels.

Materials:

The Lonely Firefly by Eric Carle

Oil Pastels/ Liquid Glue
Chalk Pastels
Black Paper (any size you prefer)

**To Begin the lesson I would read The Lonely Firefly. We would discuss the main character in the story and the character traits. I would have the students talk about the character's likes and dislikes. Then, I would have the children focus on Eric Carle's illustrations. We would notice all of the different brush strokes he uses when he paints his tissue paper and all of the different colors he incorporates. I would tell the children that we are going to re-create the Lonely Firefly by using chalk pastels. Then, I would begin my art lesson.

Step 1: Have the children draw the Lonely Firefly with a black oil pastel. I would teach this to them step-by-step. First, I would have them draw a circle on the top right side of the paper. Then, draw two circles for the eyes and one circle for the nose. Next, draw a long rectangular body. Add a triangle to the bottom of his body to created his "Lighting Tail!" Next, add to heart shaped wings to both sides of his body. Add two antennae and six legs (optional). The children will need to draw the antennae wide, not skinny, so that they can fill them with chalk. You could do the same with the six legs or just leave them as a straight line.

Step 2: Remind students that at the end of the story the Firefly saw fireworks. Demonstrate how to draw a firework. Then, have the children add fireworks to their background with colored oil pastels.

Step 3: Have the children choose a blue chalk pastel to color in the background. Demonstrate how to use the "side" of the chalk pastel instead of the "tip." In my sample I did not blend the background as I wasn't sure how it would look with the fireworks. You could have the children blend the background now or wait until the end.

Step 4: Have the children choose different colored chalk pastels to color in the firefly. I recommend having them color the "Lighting Tail" yellow but the other colors are their choice. Then, have the children blend in the chalk, inside the firefly, with his/her finger being careful not to go outside of the black lines. I would provide them with baby wipes as they move from color to color.

Step 5: Have the children draw more firework lines besides their oil pastel fireworks. This will give the fireworks more pizazz!!

Step 7: (Optional) Have the children blend in the blue background with their finger being careful not to smear the fireworks.

Step 8: (Optional) Have the children blend the fireworks with his/her finger.

I also created the same project using the glue outline technique. It turned out pretty cool! Brooke joined in on this project as well so I posted her picture.

Me:

Brooke:

Here is another creation by Brooke. She created the sunset with chalk and then added glue to make waves and circle the sun!!

Then, Tyler spent an evening watching Patty's videos with me. He was very intrigued by the video of the ships. He jumped off my lap, grabbed paper and his markers, and drew exactly what he had seen...a boat with sails, clouds, waves, and a horizon line. I was BLOWN away!! Art is amazing : )