Hidden Safari

This activity was very hard for me because I am not very good at drawing and this took a lot of drawing. It really caused me to focus and try my best which is all we can ask for in our students! 

To start out, we created ruby red glasses. We took red construction paper and using a template, we traced and cut out the shape of glasses. We also got a sheet of red film or plastic, that we glued to the construction paper. These created our ruby glasses in which we would use later to be able to see our animal. 

In order to create a safari theme, we were given a packet of animals that we would see on a safari. We were instructed to pick an animal of our choice and draw them lightly in sky blue pencil. To make the drawing a little easier, we turned our animal outline upside down. We were instructed to draw the animal upside down. By drawing the animal upside down, it makes our brains focus on the line itself not the whole picture, which allows us to break it down a little more. 

Once we were done with the drawing of the animal, we then had to choose three warm crayons that we wanted to use. We were using these to draw patterns on top of our animal. We had to draw a different pattern with each color. We started with the lightest color (yellow) and moved to the darker colors (orange and red). Drawing these patterns on the top of the animal hid our animal. The only way you could see it is if we put on our ruby red glasses! 

Once our patterns were complete and our animal was hidden, we were instructed to write three clues about our animal so that if someone walked by them they could guess what animal it was without seeing it first. 

My three clues were: 1. I am a medium sized cat who lives in Africa and Asia. 2. I have gold fur and dark spots. and 3. I like to hang out in trees. I drew a leopard! 

Once our drawing and note card were completed, we glued both of them to a 12x18 sheet of construction paper to create a boarder around it and make the project easier to hang up. 

As an extension activity, students can study safari animals in science to see the similarities and differences compared to animals we see every day. They could also study where these animals are located in the world and create a map with each animal placed in the right spots on the map in a social studies class.