Early Childhood

The Essential Question
How can young learners create with a variety of descriptive lines?

Objective
Students will use a variety of lines (zigzag, curly, wavy, etc.) to draw the scales and patterns of an imaginary fish.

Materials
large white paper, black markers, crayons or colored pencils, scissors, stapler (teacher use)

Procedures

1. Students draw or trace a provided outline of a fish onto a large sheet of white paper.
2. Have students place the tip of their marker on the top edge of the fishʼs back, behind the head where the gills would begin. Tell them to draw a wavy line from the top of the fish to the bottom. Next, ask them to draw a zigzag line. Then a looping line. Continue directing students through a variety of descriptive lines until they reach the fishʼs tail.
3. Students color their fish with crayons or colored pencils.
4. Staple a second sheet of paper beneath the fish. Students cut out their fish through both sheets and save their paper scraps.
5. Staple around the perimeter of the fish, connecting both sheets of paper except for the fishʼs belly. Wad the cut paper scraps and carefully insert them into the fish, then continue stapling. Hang the finished artworks from the ceiling.

Craig Hinshaw is an art teacher and writer, and maintains a clay studio in Davison, Michigan.