RAINBOW FISH Young Children’s Art Lesson Plan SUPPLIES: Paper: Our 8 x 10.5 inch paper Pencil Black medium tip permanent markers. Blue paint ( 2 or 3 shades of blue make for a more interesting picture) A tray of multiple colors of paint – 5 would be wonderful! The objective is to create a fish with beautiful, multicolored scales. Make sure yellow is one of the colors because it adds some life to the picture. (If the children are old enough, and when the time is right to use the variety of paint colors, have the children use the yellow paint first. If they use too many paint colors, and they start to overlap (which they will) the true colors get muddy and not very attractive. If they use yellow over a darker color, it will not show up as yellow. Jars of water: Backup water is necessary so that children can have clean water for rinsing their brushes Brushes: The brushes do not have to be expensive. They need to have a fairly small head because the fish painting will end up with 8 to 12 scales and they all need to get painted. Easel or a blackboard: (Preferable, but not necessary) You will use this to illustrate the painting as you tell the story. I like to have one of Original Work’s paper lightly taped onto the blackboard or easel pad. (Have a permanent marker nearby ) SET-UP FOR WORK TABLES Have our paper ready and on the table when the children walk in. – one for each child. Having the paper ready means that before hand you need to draw a very light pencil border about an inch all around the paper. The lines should cross over each other in the corners. Set out permanent markers on the table. If you can, have one above each and every paper. Have water jars set out on the table. If there is no sink nearby then have two large buckets on hand. One should be left empty for discarding dirty water from the rinse jars, and the other bucket full of clean water ready to replenish the jars. THE FOLLOWING IS NOT ON THE TABLE ( but nearby) - ready to move to the table at a moment’s notice. Blue paint: Have the blue paint (1 or 2 shades) already dropped onto a small paper plate ready for handout. Paint brushes: Ready for hand-out with the blue paint. Multiple colors of paint (about 5 different colors): Have the paint already dropped onto a small paper plate ready for handout. Once the children are seated have them all turn over their papers and have a teacher’s aid print the child’s name on the back using pencil. Turn the paper over so the children see the faint lines on the paper. (This could have been already done ahead of time) Now we are ready… DIALOGUE AND STORY: How many of you have a pet? Do any of you have a fish? Have all of you seen a live fish? Pet store / aquarium / snorkeling…? Today we are going to draw a fish and then paint a fish – but this is not any ordinary fish! There is a very unusual story that goes with this fish and it all starts at the ice cream stand. One very hot day in summer a young boy took out money from his pocket and handed it to the ice cream vendor. He asked for a scoop of his favorite vanilla ice cream on a cone. Storyteller: Using your black permanent marker draw a cone (triangle) and a scoop of ice cream (a circle) onto the paper you have taped to the easel. That seemed like a pretty ordinary request until he asked for a big pickle to go on top. That’s right a pickle, not a cherry, but a big juicy pickle. Storyteller: Again using your marker draw a pickle shape on top of the circle. The man handed it over to the boy. The young boy was just about to take a bite when the cone slipped out of his hand and the whole thing landed on its SIDE down on the ground. Storyteller: Take your paper off the easel and turn it sideways and then stick it back on the board. The nice ice cream vendor saw what happened and made another ice cream cone for the boy. The little boy thanked the man and off he went. BUT HE NEVER BOTHERED TO PICK UP THE CONE THAT FELL OVER ON THE GROUND! In fact no one bothered to pick up the cone. Now you would think that on a hot sunny day in the summer the ice cream would melt but no, it did not! This was destined to be a very special, almost magical ice cream cone. Listen to what happened… It was now night time and the moon came out. The moon looked down and saw the poor little ice cream all alone on the ground. It decided to visit the cone and came down attaching itself right to the tip of the cone. Storyteller: Draw the moon (a “C” shape right on the end of the point). The ice cream cone was quite bewildered. It shook a little and had a very strange feeling go through its body. I feel very different thought the ice cream cone. If only I had an eye…. And his wish came true. Storyteller: Draw a little circle for the eye. If only I had some beautiful scales…. And his wish came true. Storyteller: Draw some scales ((half a circle) all over the body. AND THE ICE CREAM CONE WAS TRANSFORMED INTO A __________ (let the children yell it out) At the moment someone came by and scooped up the little fish and took it home to his aquarium. We are ready to draw our pictures. Storyteller get a new piece of paper and draw the step by step just a moment before the children do their step. Let’s start with the aquarium. Look at your paper. Do you see a pencil border? That’s going to be our aquarium. First we turn the paper vertically – in the up and down position. Everyone put their finger on the top of the pencil line and follow it down to the bottom. Have a few adult helpers around to help with all these steps. Now everyone take off the top of their marker and put the tip on the top of the line and draw all the way to the bottom. Now the other one: top to bottom. Now we are going to go side to side. That’s called horizontal. Put your finger on the line and drag it across the line horizontally. Now with the marker. Put the marker down. Next step: Everyone needs to turn their own paper to the vertical position. (Teacher aids: Make sure this step is done.) Now the first thing the little boy ordered was the ice cream cone. NB: Storyteller should draw all the items again just before the children do. Can we all pick up the marker and draw a cone? It looks like a triangle. Now we are ready for the scoop of ice cream on top. Can every one draw a circle? What did the little boy want on top of his ice cream? Let the children answer. OK lets draw a big pickle. Now who can remember what happened next? You’re right. It fell over. Everyone turn their paper on its side. Add the moon to tip of cone (It looks like a “C”) Add an eye Add some scales (Half circles) In addition: They can add seaweed on the bottom of the aquarium and air bubbles , baby fish or a pattern in the border… whatever they think goes with a fish picture. ________________________________________________________________________ Illustrate how one uses the paint and rinses the brush each time (have them swish the brush in the water to the count to 10). The blue paint comes first. Explain that they are painting water all around the fish. HAVE ALL THE CHILDREN TURN IN THEIR MARKER FOR A PAINT BRUSH AND “PLATE” OF BLUE PAINT. Once the water is done they can exchange that plate for the one with a lot of paint colors. That is used to make the rainbow fish. (Try to get the children to use the yellow paint first.) While the painting is hanging up to dry read The Rainbow Fish or other fish stories. Hand out Pepperidge Farm Goldfish for snacks. When dry have each child come up to your desk and sign their picture on the front using a permanent marker. Adding the year is a nice touch too.