Thursday, September 27, 2012

1st Grade Giraffes Can't Dance

1st Graders read the book "Giraffes Can't Dance" by Giles Andreae.


Overview of Book 

Gerald the giraffe longs to dance, but his legs are too skinny and his neck is too long. His knees buckle whenever he tries to twirl. At the Jungle Dance, the warthogs waltz, the chimps cha-cha, and the lions tango. "Giraffes can't dance," they all jeer when it's Gerald's turn to prance. But there is one little creature who believes in Gerald. "Everything makes music," the cricket explains, "if you really want it to." So Gerald starts swaying to his own sweet tune.

With light-footed rhymes and high-stepping illustrations, this tale is gentle inspiration for every child with dreams of greatness.
The focus of this lesson is on movement and blending colors.  Through a step by step guided drawing students created their own dancing giraffe.  Students used yellow, orange, and brown markers to color there giraffes and then cut them out.  Students then created a nighttime background.  Using white, blue, and purple to paint the sky and green and yellow to paint the ground.

Teacher Example:



Student Examples





















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