Elephants from India!

My 2nd grade students learned that in India, people used to ride elephants. Today in India, many Indians still ride elephants for parades, festivals, and tourism, just like in our country people still ride horses for those same reasons (even though horses are no longer considered a mode of transportation).

The students viewed some photos of Indians riding elephants. The students noticed that the people who rode elephants would put a beautiful patterned blanket on their elephant to sit on. This was a great introduction to our next unit: pattern!

My students painted their elephants with tempera. They learned that black + white makes gray. Almost every student drew their elephant free-hand without help from me! I am impressed by how confident they are. Next, we made the elephants' blankets out of a paper colored with crayon, covered with oil pastels, and a design scratched out with a toothpick. Some of these designs are clearly inspired by Indian designs!

Lastly, the students cut their elephants out and glued them on a colored paper. Students who were absent at some point during this project could finish other parts of the elephant instead of cutting and gluing. Most of the students got some paint outside of their elephant, so gluing it on a new paper makes them look nicer. (But, as you can see from the pictures, a few students didn't get to that point).