Easter Bunny Art Activity

Can I just say, thank goodness for Jenny K!! I was hunting for an Easter bunny art activity and found the perfect guided art lesson on her blog! I have compiled some tips on helping students add their unique touch to the bunnies, as well as tips for easy clean up, and how to connect the activity to the Ontario curriculum! {The link to her video tutorial is at the end of the post}

1. Let Students Choose Their Medium

Students can add their own flair to the bunnies by deciding how to finish them off.   I had my students come up with a design for the center (using various types of lines and shapes – we reviewed these first).  They also picked a medium of their choice.

A couple of them chose to use pastels…

…but most chose paint (surprise, surprise!!).

2. Let Students Mix Their Own Colours

Although I have paint for every color in the rainbow,  I decided to give my kiddos ONLY the primary colors so that they could create their own hues.

To my delight, there was some great vocabulary building going on…

“I made TURQUOISE!”
“I made a ZOMBIE COLOUR” {LOL}
“This looks MAROON”

…were just some of the descriptive colour words (and phrases) I heard!

I’m sure if I had just given my kiddos all the paint colors to start with, these conversations would not have taken place! Instead, I might have heard “Can you pass me the purple please!”.

3. Don’t Forget the Curriculum!

We also added art terms to our vocabulary like: hue, shade, tint, primary colours, secondary colours, as well as words to describe various types of lines (horizontal, vertical, wavy etc.)! This ensured that I was covering the Ontario Art Curriculum Expectations while having a little Easter Bunny fun!

A Summary of the Elements of Design listed in the Ontario Curriculum:

You can use this list to inspire more ways to connect this bunny activity to the Ontario Art Curriculum.

LINE: Encourage students to use jagged, curved, broken, dashed, spiral, straight, wavy, zigzag lines etc, on the bunny’s shirt.
SHAPE & FORM: Have students think of unique geometric shapes and forms for their design.
SPACE: Remind students to be mindful of how they space their design, as well as where they space their bunny on the paper.
COLOUR: Get students to mix primary colours.  You could also have them choose either warm or cool colours.
TEXTURE: Have them create a pattern of lines to show texture (e.g., fur).  Or, use transfer of texture (e.g., place the bunny over a textured surface and then rub the paper with crayons.
VALUE: Add white or black to the paint so students can play around with the concept of light and dark

4. Make Clean Up a Breeze

Back to the paint… when I bring out paint, I like to use q-tips!  For starters, they allow students to get into all those tiny details. But to be completely honest… it just makes clean up a BREEZE!! No paintbrushes to wash, no fuss, no muss!

We also used small paper plates as pallets (another easy clean-up solution!).  Three plates were used for the primary colors and students were given an extra plate of their own to experiment and mix!

If you want to show your class the video tutorial, watch it on Jenny’s blog HERE 

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