The Lorax paintings

I mentioned in a post a couple weeks ago that we were studying the Secret Art of Dr. Seuss.  It was really enjoyable to ask the students to share what they knew about Theodor Seuss Geisel (which was tons!!) and for me to be able to share something totally new with them.  My students (2nd-5th) were shown some of the fantastic works of art Ted made in his spare time.  They were so interested in the fact that it was secret and many asked if he kept it a secret from his wife!  :)  I also got a lot of questions about why he would want to keep it a secret... it was a great discussion!

If you haven't seen it for yourself, check out the link here: http://www.drseussart.com/secret.html.  Some of the art is not appropriate for children so if you are sharing with your students/children- copy and paste the images into a presentation (power point, etc) rather than showing them the website.  I put a presentation on my SMARTboard for them.  (Yes I am an amazingly lucky art teacher to have such an awesome piece of technology!!!)

After looking at his art, we then read The Lorax aloud and my third graders got to create some small, cool color, mixed-media paintings.  I proposed this to them, "If the Once-ler had given YOU the very last Truffula seed and 75 years had now gone by, what would the world look like?"  Many of my students said that they planted the seed and grew a forest, but I did get a few who had stories about the Once-ler returning and cutting down all the trees again.

 Here's my bulletin board with the paintings

 I also found a new home for their spiral weavings I posted about earlier

Love the Lorax!  What a great job!  The students got to add pipe cleaner and pom pom trees and tagboard animals or buildings

More Lorax themed art will be coming soon!