2nd Grade Firefly Paintings

Today marks the end of 1st quarter. Grades have been entered, parent teacher conferences are amongst us, and the art room is still it's own work in progress (let me know if you're able to find the floor).  Like I've been saying I HAVE SO MUCH TO SHARE finding time has been hard as every spare minute seems to be spent on homework for my graduate classes (insert thumbs down here).  

BUT 2nd graders created these beauts.  I know the fireflies of summer are put away until next year, but if you walk to the 2nd grade classes you might feel as if it is still a warm summer's night.  Our jars and firefly "glows" were created with gold and silver tempera, the fireflies were created with the coveted silver sharpies and metallic crayons, a small piece of cardboard was used to make the grass, and everything was topped off with a pearly paint coat. 

 I'm totally biased, but I think they are pretty rad.

The focus of this lesson was not to learn about fireflies, but how we can use simple lines and shapes to create identifiable objects. I didn't need to teach about fireflies because let me tell you the 2nd graders already knew all about them--in fact they taught me things I didn't know.  I definitely had some firefly experts in the house.  Apparently there is a show on PBS Kids called "Wild Kratts" and one episode focused solely on fireflies, it's actually pretty cool.  Check it out here.  If I had more time I would have loved to incorporate a portion of the video into the lesson.   

Here's that video, check it out seriously I learned so much!