3rd Grade- Animal Silhouettes!

This was a fun project that I originally saw on Pinterest and had to try! It combined shapes, texture, and pattern. However, this project took the kids FOREVER (like over a month) to finish because they were so meticulous about everything. But the kids loved it and the hard work and time payed off in the end.
We started by talking about patterns and textures. We talked about different animals that had different patterns and discussed why God could have made them that way. Then each student picked an animal to focus on. I had previously picked around 10 different animals and printed out black and white copies of their patterns for the students to use as references. The students used the photos to draw the animal pattern, covering their entire papers with it, then coloring with colored pencil. I encouraged them to color in a way that showed the texture of the animal as well. The last step of the project was to add the black silhouette of the animal on top of the drawing. I had made stencils of each animal and as the students finished with their patterns, they would come get the stencil from me and use it to make their silhouette on black construction paper. Check them out!