3rd Grade: Aboriginal Fish

In 3rd grade we talked about Aboriginal art, specifically how animals were depicted as having elaborate patterns and shapes drawn inside.  

The first day I had them draw and cut out a fish from thick tagboard. After creating interesting lines and shapes inside their fish with oil pastel, they took tempera paint and painted it so no white showed through. The next time we met, I had them do the same to the other side, then wrap string around it if they so desired. A couple of them were frustrated because their names showed through from the first day. I created a challenge for them to somehow disguise their name using lines and shapes.  They were pretty excited about this, and tried to stump their classmates.