#GiraffesCAN CAN-paign

How can you tell a giraffe they CAN'T? As artists we can draw giraffes doing anything they want to do. Let's make sure that our Giraffes can live theirdreams to DANCE! 

UPDATE:
​I packaged up this lesson to help you and your students have a giraffe dance party! It takes you through all the steps of drawing, painting, glowing, and digitally animating a dancing giraffe.

Giraffes CAN Dance

Giraffes Can't Dance Book

Second graders hear the story of Gerald the Giraffe. We think about how we can help giraffes dance as artists by learning how to draw them in any pose we choose.

Drawing practice

2nd graders spent the rest of art time drawing along with these youtube videos to become familiar with giraffes while cuddling with my class set of adorable plush giraffes that I picked up a Kohls when I bought the book. (click to enlarge)

Process: dancing giraffe

Drawing a giraffe in a dancing pose uses problem-solving skills as children transfer what they know about a giraffe's body and how it might look in this imaginative way. To avoid some common issues with young artists, I made one oval tracer for the body, one oval tracer for the face, and passed out 4 tongue depressors each. These shapes will help them concretely plan the placement of the head, body, and legs before they begin.

Trace the ovals and place the tongue depressors where the legs will go

Reference my handout to see some fun giraffe poses

Students used ovals and popsicle sticks as aids to concretely pose their giraffes. 

Made by Second Graders (2MA) Click to see the gallery

View Giraffe Sketches

Dancing with the stars

The painting can be embellished with transparent UV painted stars that glow under black lights

Finished Giraffe Paintings

Click the image to see the gallery of finished paintings

Other things #GiraffesCAN do

Giraffes CAN swim

Giraffes CAN knit

Giraffes CAN broadcast

Giraffes CAN drive

Giraffes CAN rap

Giraffes CAN meditate

Giraffes CAN waterski

Giraffes CAN dress up

Giraffes CAN cheer

Giraffes CAN model glasses

Augmented Reality Book Cover

View my growing collection of book covers that come to life with augmented reality.

Giraffes CAN Dance Video

Every 2nd grader used a digital photo of their giraffe painting to make a dancing animation using both Superimpose (to erase the background) and Do Ink animation app to give it an animation path. Each of the five classes had a different "digital dance move to contribute. Stay tuned to the end to see some super cute faces sharing their work.

Erased background saved as PNG

Composing an animation path

Giraffes CAN Dance from Tricia Fuglestad on Vimeo.

Packaged lesson: explore here