2013: Community and Vocabulary Strengthening Go Together

We had just finished reading a book together on working as a team, so I constructed a lesson that would require them to do so.   Better yet, it involved reviewing vocabulary from that week, and making art!

First, we talked about a monster we would like to make together. The students decided how many of each body part it should have.

 I gave the students a single large paper and instructed them to decide who would draw which body parts.  I reminded them that they were going to have to work together so everyone could draw.

They colored their wild monster with colored pencils, again communicating and working together.  They modeled each others' blending techniques, resulting in richer color and color detail than I would have likely seen if they were working separately.  

We all loved the result!