Snow Bears

Grade 1

Students made these adorable snow bears in one 40 minute class period the day we came back from Christmas break!  It was a great lesson in practicing their shading/blending skills with the messy medium of chalk!

1. We began with a 12 x 18 blue paper and drew an oval for the face, and two ears, and used curved lines to drop the shoulders to the corners of the paper.

2.  They blocked in the basic shape with white chalk, and rubbed it in a circular fashion to smooth the chalk out.  Sometimes more than one layer of chalk was needed! We added snowflakes with the white.  I use white chalkboard chalk as it creates less chalk dust, but you could use white soft pastel.

3.   They added their own noses, eyes, and a shadow under the chin with vine charcoal.  I like vine charcoal because it is less intense than black soft pastel.

*  Don't worry about all the smudges in the background.  It adds to the charm and makes the bears look like they are in a snowstorm!