Birds do! Did you know there are 9000 kinds of birds, and they all lay eggs? Which bird lays blue eggs? Robins do. Did you know robins are a sign of spring? Who laid this egg? A penguin. Father penguins have a pouch between their feet. It keeps the egg warm so mother penguins can go hunt for food. Who laid these two tiny eggs? A hummingbird. Tiny birds should lay tiny eggs. They got their name because their wings hum. Who lays giant eggs? The largest bird of course! An ostrich. Ostriches don’t bury their heads in the sand. They lay their head down to hide. It only looks like they’re buried. Who else lays eggs? All insects do, except for flies and aphids. Do you know who laid these eggs? Ants, of course. They may look different, but they’re both ants. Did you know we’ve named 12,500 ants? But, there may be another 10,000 without names. That’s a lot of ants! Who laid all these eggs? Not this bee. She’s a worker bee. Only a queen bee can lay eggs. She can lay 1000 to 2000 eggs, a day. That’s a lot of eggs! Who laid their tiny eggs on this leaf? A butterfly or a moth. They can live anywhere, except Antarctica. Did you know there are 12-15,000 kinds of butterflies? There are 150-250,000 kind of moths. That’s a lot of moths! Who laid these eggs? Hint…it wasn’t an insect. It was an arachnid. That’s a spider. Some spiders lay their eggs individually. Some weave an egg sac that’s full of eggs. Did you know there are 40,000 kinds of spiders. They can live anywhere, except Antarctica. I guess insects don’t like the South Pole! Who else lays eggs? All reptiles do, except for boas, vipers, and garter snakes. Who’s hatching out of this egg? An alligator! How can you tell? Alligators are dark green. They close their mouths and hide their teeth. Crocodiles are olive brown. They close their mouths and show their top teeth. Beware a crocodile’s smile! Who laid these eggs? A lizard did. Little lizards lay little eggs. Big lizards lay big eggs. All lizards have four legs, clawed feet, and a long tail. Most have dry, scaly skin. That sounds rough to me! Who laid these eggs? A snake did. Snakes can be smaller than a ruler. They can be longer than 7 rulers. All lizards have a forked tongue and a long body. They don’t have arms or legs, ears or eyelids. They never blink. Ever! Who’s hatching out of these eggs? Baby turtles! Small turtles are 2-3 inches long. Big ones are 72 inches, or 6 rulers long. Turtles crawl or swim with 4 legs. They hide from danger inside a shell. I wish I had one too! Who laid these eggs? A dinosaur did, millions of years ago. They never got to hatch. Instead they turned to stone. I wonder who’s inside. A Tyrannosaurus Rex? Maybe a Triceratops? I guess we’ll never know! Who else lays eggs? Amphibians do! Amphibians live half their lives on land, the other half in water. Do you recognize these 2 amphibians? The green one is a frog. The brown one’s a toad. There’s only 1 other kind of amphibian, a salamander. Most water animals lay eggs, whether they live in freshwater or saltwater. Who’s inside these eggs? Fish! There are more than 27,000 different kinds of fish. They live in water. They have a backbone. They breathe using gills. Both these fish live in the ocean. The first fish is a clown fish. Why? It has bright colors, like a clown. The fish in the second picture are salmon. They swim up river to lay their eggs, in the spot where they once hatched. Who laid this strange egg? A shark or a skate. I wonder what’s in my picture. What big eyes it has! I wonder about its mouth… The egg case is called a Mermaid’s Purse, because of its shape. It never belonged to a mermaid. Some purses hold 1 egg. Others hold up to 7. Who laid this strange egg? A jellyfish did. Its body is soft. That’s because it’s mostly water with just a little gelatin (like jello). On top it looks like a bell. It has tentacles that string down to catch or sting its prey. Jellyfish usually float in the ocean. Their top can pulse and move them along too. Who laid these strange eggs? An octopus did. Did you recognize this one with its huge head, 2 eyes, and 8 arms? The arms have suction cups.
Squids look a lot like octopuses with their 8 arms. The difference, squids have 2 long tentacles.
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1. Name the paint colors I was given. 2. What 3 brush sizes did I use? Why did I need all 3? 3. Did I enjoy painting? Give 1 piece of supporting evidence from the text. 4. Would you like to paint with Melanie? Explain your position. Answers are at the end of this post. I wanted to write this post for over a month. Finally, it’s done! I STILL CAN’T BELIEVE IT! I painted a picture, way back in March! I haven’t painted, or held a brush since elementary school. Really! Talk about going out of my comfort zone! I used deep breathing, and humor, to fight off a panic attack. Kidding! Sort of! I tried to copy the picture below. My teacher, Melanie painted all 3, but if you look closely, they’re each a tiny bit different. I wanted mine to look exactly, perfectly like them, but my painting is like me, imperfect, unique. I’m trying to decide if that’s good, bad…maybe both? Melanie Sunderland Fullenkamp is in the 2nd picture, and she’s my kind of teacher…she knows her subject and how to communicate it. She models what to do, then gives clear simple instructions. Perfect for an art-challenged person like me. And, she knows the power of praise. A compliment keeps people working, trying. It was my favorite tool to use as a teacher. It works on 2nd graders, on me too!
In the second picture, I also painted orange below the pink. Then I drew a horizon line in pencil. It’s where the orange meets the darker pink. In the original, that line’s much smaller. I wanted mine bigger, to be like my lake. That’s why the dark strip is huge. It’s a big blob of mountains, for now. One of the things I discovered while painting, is that I’m always editing. I wanted mountains so I asked Melanie how to make them. Good teachers help students get the results they want. Thanks, Melanie! While painting, we had a few visitors, a newspaper reporter and the president of Riverside Art Center. Riverside hosted this class. By the time they arrived, my colors had deepened and darkened. The mountains started to have peaks like the ones in Tennessee. No one else had mountains, but Melanie coached me on how to paint them in. I added brown lines with a thin brush. I filled them in using both the middle and small brushes. I went back to the small one to make ripples in the lake. Then I made the black bottom with my favorite brush…the big one! I drew in the sun, first with pencil. Then I painted it in using the middle brush. Next I used the small brush to paint yellow lines around the sun. Would you believe the smallest brush is the hardest for me to use? It doesn’t feel solid, like pencils, makers, and crayons. I know how hard to push, to get the look I want. With this tiny brush, I don’t. I dot in the color. Straight lines are scary! I’m afraid I’ll mess up. I also used that small brush to add peaks to the mountains and ripples to the lake. White for mountains. Brown, yellow, and white for the ripples. I thought the first picture got too dark, so I added more yellow to the 2nd. That’s the nice thing about painting, mix in another color, and your painting changes. Now, looking at it, I think it’s too yellow, like the lake swallowed the sun…maybe I could write a story about that! Hmmm… I also added in the dog and the tree, the rocks and the plants. The dog was easy, even for art-challenged me! I traced the dog stencil in pencil. Then I painted in his silhouette using the middle and fine point brushes. For the tree, Melanie modeled how to quick draw 5 lines in pencil. They’re the basic tree lines. Then I painted them in using all 3 brushes. I used the big brush for the trunk. The middle one for the limbs. The little one for the branches and leaves. I love leaves…little dots of color. But Melanie had a warning: know when to stop…you can have too many dots! I also used the small brush to dot in the rocks and plants near the tree. The last step, easy-peasy, let it dry. Then sign your work. I would never sign in paint. I went back to good old marker. It’s great for fine lines! This is our class picture. I think we all did a great job! But, I like theirs better. Why? It looks more like the original. They liked mine, because it was more impressionistic, more like modern art. That’s easy for me…just dot in, whisp in your lines with that small brush. PS- finding this picture makes me feel better about that lake. It looks a little less yellow, no LOL!
How I Painted a Picture 1. Name the paint colors I was given. White, Pink, Orange, Brown, Yellow, Black, White 2. What 3 brush sizes did I use? Why did I need all 3? 1- large, for big areas to paint 2- medium, for smaller areas or defined shapes 3- small- for tiny areas or for line definition 3. Did I enjoy painting? Give 1 piece of evidence from the text. Ex: No she didn’t. She was fighting a panic attack all the way through the painting. Or yes she did. She wrote that she couldn’t believe she pained a picture. 4. Would you like to paint with Melanie? Explain your position? Fair: Yes, I like to paint. Or: No, I can’t paint. Great: Yes, I love painting and mixing colors to create a picture. Or: No, I can never get the picture on paper to look how I imagine it. |
AuthorWhen I write, I can only have one voice in my head, mine. A little noise is fine. But too much, or worse yet, WORDS, and I must change rooms or pull out headphones. Then I can write on! Categories
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