Red Panda Shape Collage - 1st Grade

Here is a lesson I did with my 1st graders at Twin Hickory Elementary during Student Teaching. The main idea was to teach the students that objects or animals can be created from basic shapes that are put together. 

Red Panda

Our animal that we learned about was the red panda. Since most students were unfamiliar with the animal, I showed them photos, we read an article about red pandas from Ranger Rick Magazine, and I showed the classes a short video of red pandas playing in the snow - the students thought they were hilarious and the class erupted into giggles : ). I also tied red pandas to things the students were familiar with, like mentioning that Master Shifu from Kung Fu Panda was a red panda. The animal really clicked with them!

Master Shifu from Kung Fu Panda

Here are some of the student's red pandas, they were able to add so much character by the way they assembled their animals and the details they drew on at the end. This was such a fun lesson!