Why YES, That IS a 59 Foot Giant Squid

Welcome to Crazy Town! I know we ALL say it this time of the year, but everything's a little nutso (state testing, the weather, allergies, the end of the year . . . ) and my strategy is always to just run far far away join in.  So, HELLO, fifty nine foot squid! 

To begin this project, first graders drew an animal that lives in the ocean on a 6 x 9" piece of paper with pencil, then (once approved/drawn big enough) that piece of paper was taped onto a 6 x 9" piece of styrofoam for printing. They traced over their drawings, making grooves in the foam that they traced again.  Once it was all traced, a new/fresh paper (with name on the back) was taped to the foam and it was time to break out the Payons (if you don't have boxes and boxes and boxes of these that you're trying to use up, watersoluble oil pastels work as well) and started printing:

I did emphasize to them that they needed to work rather quickly, doing small parts at a time and print before the color dried on their foam.  This also allowed them the opportunity to use any/all colors.  Did they run a bit? Yep! Does it matter? NOPE, this is underwater, friends, so we need that blurry look! Don't forget to brandish the paper:

No idea why she has a drawing on the back where her name should be,
but trust me, she's brandishing that paper!

We printed for a few art class times, then read I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean by Kevin Sherry and looked at some stats on National Geographic.  Did you know that the biggest giant squid ever seen/captured (in Japan) was fifty nine feet long?  That's hhhhuuuuuuuggggggeeeeee! To figure out how really big that is, I took one class of first graders in the gym to use the 12" tiles to measure it out with big roll paper.  No photos of this because with 22 first graders in the gym with giant rolls of paper, scissors, and crayons I had no time for photography. And I also decided at this point that ONE giant squid was enough for all three of my first grade classes.

So, students spent several art times printing away, then choosing one or two prints to take home and leave the rest with me to glue to a giant squid:

What do you think? Four-ish feet down, 55 more to go?

Of course, some students "got it" more than others, but still they're so pretty:

Now to find some wall space for a 59' squid . . . and distract myself from summer vacation that's still not here yet.