Cardinals and other birds

This lesson is adapted from a cardinal lesson on Deep Space Sparkle. Patti, who runs the website, did this lesson with tempera paint and has the children outline with black paint when they are finished. I am hesitant to use liquid tempera if I don't have to. It's almost impossible to clean up without running water, and I usually don't have access to running water in my classrooms. We used dry tempera paint instead.

I point out to my students that the cardinal is our (North Carolina) state bird! They love the bright colors in this painting. Because we do other cardinal art in the art room, I show the students pictures of other well-known birds and they can adapt their drawing and paintings to create different birds. We look at the hummingbird, the blue bird, and the robin as well!

Third grade work: