Literal Fish Drawings

I found this project on another blogger's post and thought it sounded really fun.  I researched a whole bunch of fish names and found about 110 names which could be taken very literally.  I chose ones that lent themselves to interesting visual representations, ones like Rooster fish, Feather Fin Knife fish, and Clown fish.  I printed out all the names, cut them apart and put them in a hat.  I had a little discussion with my fourth grade classes about what the word "literal" means and how we use it in everyday speech.  I then showed them a few photos of some of the strangest looking fish I could find and slowly transitioned into how you could take the literal name of a fish and come up with funny version of that fish.  We focused on making sure that we weren't drawing what the real fish looked like. 

Students drew a name from the hat and had a minute to brainstorm as to whether that name would work for them.  If they wanted to change, I gave them one minute to trade with each other and if they still weren't happy, I offered a last chance, all or nothing drawing from the hat.  They would have to give me their fish name and choose one last name out of the hat and whatever they got was theirs for good.  I drew a few examples on the board to make sure that everyone understood the idea of a "literal" fish name drawing.  Students then sketched out their fish in pencil and once they had a finalized their design were given good paper to draw on.

We colored in four fish with oil pastels and I gave a demonstration on how to blend colors and mix different colors together.  Students also had to add some sort of background element which related to their fish.  I made sure to have the students fill in their fish very solidly with oil pastels because our next step was to watercolor resist over the fish.

I demonstrated to the students how watercolor paint could be painted over the top of anything with oil pastel on it and the water would resist and not change the color.  They LOVED seeing and trying this.  It was definitely one of those eye opening AH HA moments...love those.  I demonstrated how to do a wet on wet watercolor painting to create a sparkling and colorful underwater background.