Final Student Project Posting For This School Year

The fifth graders worked on patterned animals inspired by the illustrations in the book "Calabash Cat".  The author/illustrator, James Rumford, was inspired by a calabash gourd cat decorated with African inspired patterns.   The book follows the adventures of calabash cat as he seeks to find where the world ends.  Along the way he encounters animals from different lands.

This project took 4 one hour class periods. On the first day we practiced creating patterns with sharpies.  The next class we drew a variety of animals and then each student picked their favorite to use for a final project.  During the remaining two classes the students used sharpies to add decorative patterning and then used colored pencils to enhance the patterning.  They finished their project by cutting and pasting their animal to a brown or black paper background.  Some students used sharpies to add patterns to the background.

First week: practice patterning

Second week: draw animals

Third/Fourth week: choose animal, add patterns, cut out, paste to colored paper, add final details