4th Grade Aboriginal Art Animals

These cuties are part of an Australian Aboriginal art lesson I do every year. They always turn out great and the kids have so much fun with the painting. First we talk about the Australian Aboriginal Dot paintings- I give them a world map, we locate Australia, and then we talk about the different animals. I've printed out several different animal color pages for them to use as a guide. They pick which animal they want to draw, and take a copy of the color page to look at when they are drawing it. The color pages work well as a drawing guide because they are usually easy to draw and they are just simple black lines. Then I keep the copies and just use them each year. The students are given a small piece of brown construction paper (half of a 9x12) to draw the animal on, and we talk about how the real aboriginal paintings were made on tree bark.

Next the students begin painting the dots with tempera paint. The eraser on a new unsharpened pencil works the best for painting the dots. I have learned that letting them practice making the dots works a lot better in the long run. That way they don't go too fast and make a big blob. They start with a black or white outline of dots on all of the pencil lines. Then they fill in the animal, and finally the background. When they are switching paint colors, they just wipe the end of the pencil on a paper towel. It takes an average of three days to paint the whole thing, so I have been using clear paint cups with lids that come in a set, and I fill them up with all of the colors. Its much easier than getting the paint out on plates each time.

Overall I love seeing the results of this project and I enjoy the process as well. Check out these awesome ones below!