Another Common Core Art Project: Polar Bears

Since I seem to get more hits on my blog when I post stuff about incorporating Common Core, I figured I'd share a unit that I did last year when we had to start incorporating the ELA shifts.  For those of you who don't know what the shifts are, here they be!  These come straight from the Engage NY website.  Basically, the idea is that if everyone starts using these shifts, we will be more aligned with how we are teaching the students and getting them to be more college ready.


Shift 1 Balancing Informational &  Literary Text
Students read a true balance of informational and literary texts. 

Shift 2 Knowledge in the Disciplines 
Students build knowledge about the world (domains/ content areas) through TEXT rather than the teacher or activities

Shift 3 Staircase of Complexity 
Students read the central, grade appropriate text around which instruction is centered.  Teachers are patient, create more time and space and support in the curriculum for close reading.

Shift 4 Text-based Answers 
Students engage in rich and rigorous evidence based conversations about text.  

Shift 5 Writing from Sources 
Writing emphasizes use of evidence from sources to inform or make an argument. 

Shift 6 Academic Vocabulary 
Students constantly build the transferable vocabulary they need to access grade level complex texts.  This can be done effectively by spiraling like content in increasingly complex texts.

So, here is the project I did in relation to the ELA shifts.  I did this with 4th grade, but it could definitely be done with other grades and altered in many ways to fit what you might want to do.

I did this project during winter, thus the polar bear theme.  Here's how it went:

Day 1:  I showed students a power point presentation about polar bears.  We talked about where they live, what they look like, and why they are endangered.  I also showed them advertisements from Coca-Cola that incorporated polar bears.  We looked at the body of a polar bear and figured out how to draw one using shapes.  For the remainder of class, students practiced this.

Day 2:  On the second day, I gave students the parameters for this project.  They had to draw at least one polar bear in an appropriate environment based on what they had learned about polar bears.  Students spent the entire period sketching these out.  If they finished and I approved of their drawing, I let them take a white oil pastel to start tracing over their pencil lines.

Day 3-5:  For the next few class periods, I demonstrated how to blend oil pastels to create value, texture and definition between the white polar bears and the snowy background.  I didn't want students to just outline everything in black, like a coloring book, so we ended up using a lot of white and blue pastels.

Day 6-7:  Finally, here comes the Common Core part.  I passed out an article on polar bears that was grade level appropriate (shift 1).  Now, I find it hard to get articles on a certain subject area if it isn't already in a Scholastic art magazine.  I spent a night doing searches on polar bear facts that were written for elementary age students.  For the last part of this project, I asked students to write a 5-6 sentence paragraph about their artwork while relating back to the article they read (shift 4 & 5).  I wanted students to be able to back up the reason why they drew their polar bears the way they did.  I had students neatly cut out their paragraph and glue it and their drawing to black construction paper to display in the hallway.

"Polar bears live in the Arctic so I drew my polar bear with glaciers in the background.  I drew a mom polar bear walking home to her cubs with a little present.  I drew a present because it is almost Christmas.  That is why I drew my polar bear.  I drew my polar bear white because polar bear fur is really transparent but their fur reflects off the snow."

"Polar bears live near the north pole in the Arctic Circle so I drew a polar bear at the north pole.  They are found in coastal parts of Alaska, Canada, Russia, Norway and Greenland also.  Polar bears are good swimmers.  Polar bears are the largest bears on earth.  Polar bears hunt seals, fish, reindeer and seabirds."

"Polar bears live in the Arctic so I drew mine on ice.  The polar bears home is melting so I drew the ice with cracks in it.  Polar bears have sharp noses so I drew it smelling for food for its baby."

"Do you know three facts about polar bears?  First fact, I drew a scarf on my polar bear to show it stays warm.  Polar bears also stay warm because of their fur.  Second, I colored my polar ear white and black because they need to blend in with their habitat.  Third, they are the largest bear in the world."

"My polar bears are in the Arctic, that is why I put them in the snow.  The polar bears fur is actually transparent and they look white because they reflect the white color of the ice; that is why my polar bears are white.  Polar bears like to swim so that is why they're by the water.  My polar bears are with their mom because the dad doesn't stay with the babies."

Now, I know none of these are stupendous paragraphs or anything, but it's still art class and I do believe there is only so much reading and writing you can do in art before you bog students down and make them dread coming to class with you!  They have to do enough reading and writing outside of art that you don't want to overwhelm them.  I feel by doing this project in this way, I was still having them write about THEIR artwork and not as much about the facts.  You can see the rest of the polar bear drawings and paragraphs on Artsonia.  I also have my polar bear article and unit plan on The smARTteacher website.

Check it out!

Check it out!  I've FINALLY posted the photos from my 2011 art show, which was from my first year of teaching.  I've posted most of the artwork and the bowling pins that we auctioned off to raise money for art club that year!  (You can also check out last year's art show as well...the links to the pages are on the top right of my blog!)

My Keith Haring bowling pin...

Homemade Scratch Art!

Did you know that you can make your own scratch art boards?  All you need is crayons or oil pastels, tempera paint, dish soap (like Dawn), a sponge brush and tag board!  In my first year of teaching, I did scratch art skeletons with my 5th grade for the Day of the Dead, but I used store-bought scratch boards.  NEVER will I do that again!  A lot of them wasted the scratch board, and it's expensive stuff!  I eventually learned how to make my own scratch boards, so I've embraced it.  I actually think it's better to make your own...then you can choose what color schemes to go with.


To make the scratch board paint, I usually just squeeze 1-2 tablespoons of dish soap into an almost full container of paint.  I'm sure there is an actual recipe out there somewhere, but I figure once the paint starts smelling like the dish soap, there's probably enough in it to make a difference.  You'll notice that the paint will be a little bubblier from the soap once you shake it up and a little shinier than normal during application.

To make the scratch board, it's very simple.  First, choose a color (or multiple colors) of crayons.  Press hard on the tag board so you get a nice, heavy, shiny coat of crayon on the paper.  You can see in the photo below where I didn't press hard at all...that won't work!  You can't have any paper showing through because the paint will adhere to it and it won't be able to be scratched off without ripping the paper.

Next, paint over the crayon with the scratch board paint!  I like using the sponge brushes.  I usually have the kids do two coats.  Be sure to use long, even strokes across the paper.  If your paint ends up being too think in spots, it will end up being difficult to scratch precise details because the paint will want to chip off.  Paint a single layer, let dry, and then paint another.  Today I had the kids take their papers to the heater and hold it upside down over the air to dry their layers faster.  Everyone was able to prepare their scratch boards in one class today.

These scratch boards are for the 6th grade Greek unit.  Students are currently learning about the evolution of Greek pottery, starting with Minoans and the geometric style.  They were asked to choose a type of Greek pot to represent in scratch art, thus the black and red colors.  Some students are doing red crayon with black paint while others are doing black crayons with the red paint to replicate the idea of red-figure vs. black-figure pottery.

The Egyptian project used up A LOT more clay than planned...so I don't think I'll be able to do as many clay projects with the 6th graders as planned.  I still need to do a clay project with my Kinders, 2nd graders, and 3rd graders.  Currently, I'm working hard on doing some reclaim of clay so that I can hopefully do more clay with 6th grade again!

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Here are some of the past scratch art projects that I've done with my kids:

These were scratch art skeletons I did with 5th grade my first year of teaching.  We used store bought scratch board.  Some of the students did a decent job creating a good composition, but others wasted the expensive board.  This is the project that opened me up to making my own scratch boards!

This was my first home-made scratch art project.  I did this with 1st graders, also during my first year of teaching.  We did under water scenes, so I asked them to choose bright colored crayons to color their tag board with.  We used black tempera.  You can see on some of the photos where students didn't have two solid coats of paint.  If you don't do two good coats, you'll be able to see the crayon through the paint.

I did this project last year with 2nd graders.  We talked about the Arctic and the types of animals that live there.  We colored our tag board with blues and greens before painting over with white tempera paint.