Dairy Delight Dogs

This is a book that I've loved forever, ever since I bought it for my oldest daughter from a book order:

It's a sweet little story about a dog who decides an ice cream parlor should be his home.  I've wanted to use it in my art classroom for years, and decided this is the year!  Reviewing neutral colors is part of our second grade curriculum, so it fit in nicely.
To begin, students used their sketchbooks to draw things (with crayon) that were neutral in color.  They brainstormed and shared and drew.  Then I gave each student a 12 x 18 white paper and had them write their name in the corner with crayon.  While they were writing, I gave each student a single half-sheet of newspaper.  We drew large bumps with our crayon on our newspaper (for a dog body), cut them out and glued them onto our white paper.  Next we drew large rounded edged triangles on our newspaper (for the head) and cut them out and glued them on.  Finally, we drew small rounded-edge triangles (two of them, for ears), cut them out and glued them on.  Once everything was glued down, it was time to paint the background.  Students got paint shirts on and we reviewed correct painting techniques.  I gave each table yellow, turquoise and pink, giving students the choice of mixing colors for the background or painting one solid color straight from the bottle. Two classes had enough time to read Lisa Campbell Ernst's charming book at this point, before art was over for the day.
The next time students came to art, they got paint shirts on immediately and reviewed correct painting techniques again before painting their dogs:

This student wasn't there for the background painting day,
but it's still adorable.

 At this point, the personality of their painting style and dogs really started coming through!  The last class got to read the book at this point (and laughed at all the appropriate places).
The only thing left to do was to use oil pastel for details and give each one of our dogs their own ice cream cones.  For the past few years my sixth graders have made their own sketchbooks using cereal boxes, and I had lots of leftover pieces I put to use for making the ice cream cone.  Students used patterns I made to trace cone shapes on the brown side of the old cereal boxes and used oil pastel to add details:

Finally, students used Model Magic and Cloud Clay to make the "famous vanilla-chocolate swirl." I don't know what happens with Cloud Clay sometimes, but this is what my light brown looked like when I opened it:

It's super sticky and is reminiscent of baby poop.

I decided to open another package, and believe it or not, it was even worse.  I really tried and showed it to my classes, and students decided vanilla was just fine for their dog:

This student added marker to make it a 'swirl'.

I love this dog so much!

It's a blueberry flavored cone with a double ice cream!

This dog has such a personality!

These are going to look ah-mazing in the hall!

Another Trip To Market To Market

Several years ago I wrote about this same lesson and I hadn't done that (this?) lesson since.  The book is so fun and rhyme-y and sing-songy that I really wanted to do it again.  First we read To Market To Market by Anne Miranda and drew a practice stack of animals in our sketchbooks.  

I bought this hard-backed copy on Amazon for a RIDICULOUSLY low price.

Next we printed our shopping carts.  This year I used old lamination (the extra part when something is laminated) taped to some random paper I had left over (I wrote their name on the lamination in Sharpie) and we used black acrylic paint to do the printing:

I ordered strawberry baskets on Ebay to print with.

Imagine a name written in Sharpie--this is one of my extras.

Students drew their stores with pencil and then traced in Sharpie:

I also gave each student a piece of paper to draw their animal stack on.  The paper was the right size to fit in their cart (assuming they drew a vertical stack of animals).  I believe (this is the moment where I leave my computer and go searching for the paper to measure) it was 12" x 4".  Students were encouraged to draw a "silly stack" of animals.  They drew with pencil, traced with extra-fine Sharpie and colored their animals with Crayola color sticks. 

When they were all colored, students cut out their animals, all in one continuous stack.
I then used my new Cool Shot hot glue gun to their animals into their carts:

Students then glued their animals (now in their carts) to their stores and wrote their own to-market-to-market on a small paper I gave them.  I just printed a few lines and a clip art of a shopping cart on paper (last time they did the writing in their classrooms but it took FOREVER and I'm not in a taking-forever sort of mood).

Oh, the frustration of not being able to rotate these pictures.
You have no idea of the time I've wasted trying to ROTATE.
Picture Ross screaming "PIVOT!!! PIVOT!!!!" on that stairwell on Friends,
and that's pretty much me right now.

And a few final shots of them hanging in the hall (though I'm not super happy with how they photographed--too much white):

I Really Need This Book

Note the thrown rain boot in the background.
Never a dull moment around here.

Found at my local library (see previous post about our twice weekly visits): What Elephant? by Geneviève Côté.  I'd like to lie to you and say it just came out, but it's been around for ten years apparently.  That library! Always a place to make new book friends!
It's a sweet little tale about a boy (George) who comes home to find an elephant in his house but none of his friends believe him so he thinks he must be losing his marbles. ("Elephants don't read newspapers!")
I. Need. This. Book. For kindergarten! I don't know exactly how I'll use it yet, but I've got a few ideas.  Beautiful illustrations and wonderfully written, what's not to love??? Kindergarten lives for possibilities and secrets (like an elephant hidden in your bedroom closet).  
I'm so excited! A quick internet search and it could be mine for as low as . . . $3.99.  Worth every penny.
Oh, and it has a bit of a lesson about believing yourself and your own eyes (and all the ignoring-the-elephant-in-the-room bit that only the adult will get). So many directions I could go with this--I can't wait!