1/2 ~ Henri Rousseau

Henri Rousseau was the perfect artist to investigate while the Grade 1/2 students learned about jungle animals. Henri Rousseau was best known for his paintings of tropical jungles. Did you know that he never visited a jungle in his life and that art critics ridiculed him for his artworks, calling them 'child like'? We learned a lot about Rousseau when we shared the book 'The Fantastic Jungles of Henri Rousseau'.

Students were inspired by his artworks 'The Dream' and 'Surprised' when they created these collages of tigers, further developing their understanding of space (foreground and background) and overlapping shapes.

Chameleons were another animal we investigated in Art. Students particularly enjoyed reading Leo Lionni's book called 'A Colour of his Own'.

Students painted colour diffusing paper with food dye to make their chameleons and then glued them onto a collaged background.