To start I would find some interesting facts about the cardinal. I found some HERE. I'm sure there a million other places to find them. There are a lot of youtube videos out there that show cardinals in nature up close as well and the sounds they make! Of course, in my case, I would also include information on state birds.
I had a couple different ideas about how to approach this lesson.
- Paint the background and glue on the bird.
- Paint the background and oil pastel the bird.
- Paint the whole thing!
1. Draw the bird with them however you see best. I throw in a step by step drawing lesson with my students now and then.
2. Don't forget the branches! This is where they can experiment on their own with overlapping and space.
3. Have students outline their project in crayon to help them stay in the lines when they paint. (Another method is to have them paint in the lines as much as possible and outline after to "clean up" the edges)
4. I would have them paint top to bottom starting with the sky first. A neat idea in hind sight would be to have the students do a technique like salt with their watercolor.
5. Next I would have them go back to the top and paint the branches. This leaves the bird and small details for last.
6. It wouldn't be a winter landscape without SNOW! I didn't take a picture of my example with snow. DOH! Of course, you could have them dot the background with white paint and Q-tips! If you are more ambitious what about snowy puff paint (equal parts glue and shaving cream)?!?!? OR GLITTER! Okay, yeah, maybe not glitter...... But maybe...
Adaptations: Students could marble or string paint white on blue paper for falling snow. They could also paint on brown paper or use plain brown paper that can be cut into strips. Glue down the strips as branches. Students can paper piece or sponge on the bird with a template and add eyes and even maybe feathers to their projects.
Wouldn't it be neat if they could actually glue twigs on their papers?!?!
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