Goldfish Like Matisse - Kindergarten

Whenever possible, I like to physically take the children to the subject they will be drawing or, at the very least, bring the subject to them.  For this project, I brought live goldfish in to the classroom for the kids to draw and then later released them into a goldfish pond.  The kids were so excited to see live fish in their classroom!

INSTRUCTOR:
Shawna K.

GOAL:
To learn more about Matisse's famous goldfish painting and then make their own reproduction using watercolors and paper cutouts.

SUPPLIES:
You will need: pencils; scissors; orange, green, and brown construction paper; assorted liquid watercolors for the background; blue liquid watercolors for the vases; 12x18 watercolor paper; 9x12 watercolor paper; watercolor paintbrushes; gluesticks; and smocks.

INSTRUCTIONS:
Day 1: The students will select the shape of vase they wish to draw and cut it out of the 9x12 piece of paper.  Using light blue watercolors, they will paint the entire vase blue.  On the large piece of watercolor paper, they will paint whatever color they want for their background, but preferably something like brown, orange, or gold that will contrast with the blue vase.

The students will also draw small goldfish and cut them out.  All of these things will be saved for later.

Day 2: After the watercolor washes have dried, the students will assemble their goldfish masterpieces.  They glue the vase to the background, and the fish to the vase.  They can then use brown construction paper to make a table or they can use green construction paper to decorate the edges of the vase with seaweed.