MOnSteR HaNDs

Grade 2/3: Having Some Fun While Drawing Their Hands

It was time to have a little fun, I thought. We talked about our hands and how changing their position results in changing their shapes … this shows up when you trace around them on a piece of paper. Not just the standard position of flat on the page, fingers slightly splayed. (Think about shadow puppets) What if we took those outlines and made them into … monsters?

If you look at the outlines, you may start to see a head here, a tail there, noses or snouts, legs or fins. Perhaps the monster is a sea monster, floating in the depths of the ocean. This was an opportunity to use their imaginations along with their pencil crayons.

But why not have some help? We made this into a game: rotating the drawings around the room at the sound of my bell. I had 2 series of cards that I flashed at each turn, giving directions for shapes or line quality and colour for that turn.

For instance: “Zig zags, done in purple.” Pass it on. Then, “Circles, brown.”

After they drew the outlines of their hands, they were given one such direction to do themselves, then the next turn was to pass to the person on their right. We kept it going until everyone got their own drawing back. Surprise!

What remained now was to outline the main body of their creature in Sharpie marker to make it stand out from the rest AND to name their monster.

They had such fun with this project, and so did I.