2nd Grade - Zoo Animal Drawings

Our 2nd graders recently went on a trip to the zoo because they were learning about animals, habitats and adaptations in science.  To go along with this unit, I decided to have them each draw a zoo animal.  I have many old "zoobook" magazines and I randomly chose students to each pick one, therefore everyone in each class was drawing a different animal.

They learned how to look at the pictures in the magazine and find the big shapes that make up the animal.  They drew the shape of the body first, then the head and legs/arms.  All the other smaller details go last.  They were asked to draw at least 3 different poses of the same animals.  Next, they added the animals habitat.  Horizon lines were reviewed in this step!  The practice drawings were then traced onto the nice white paper using the light box or a window. 

The animals and habitats were colored with oil pastels.  The skies were painted with a tempera wash.