Panda Bears and Groundhog Day! Kids Drawing Class
Topic: Kids Art Class
In honor of Groundhog Day we drew woodchucks, aka groundhogs. I showed the kids photos and a cartoon character named "Johnny Chuck". Which did they want? Everybody call out what you want when I raise my hand! (They had already expressed their preferences in disunison.) When I raised my hand, they all said "natural!"(photo). The child who'd wanted the cartoon version forgot he was to say "cartoon!". We did both anyway! The cartoon reference came from Kidoons.com. They have a whole story line of cartoon characters built around the stories of Thornton Burgess but don't seem to credit the authorship of the stories (as far as I could tell).

We also did Panda Bears in honor of the pandas from the National Zoo who are being shipped back to China today (Feb 4th). We had some sumi-e painting and some photos as references. First we did the photo, then the sumi-e, but in drawing. I ask the kids to color in the black shapes as if there are invisible outlines to color in. We need a descriptive name for this process. One child's name for it is "invisible coloring in". I would like to have as many names as possible for it, so, suggestions please!

Scroll past pics for links to Panda info.









Tai Shan returns to China via FedEx, ABC News story.

Info on Panda's World at National Zoo from the Smithsonian Institute

How the Panda got his black and white markings - a Chinese folktale, and information on Panda Bears

KungFu Panda Stick Puppet to download from HP

Panda Cub at San Diego Zoo

Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See? Board Book, written by Bill Martin Jr., illustrated by Eric Carle.