Dahlov Ipcar's Calico Jungle- Second Grade

The Calico Jungle by Dahlov Ipcar is such a wonderful book.  The illustrations are very original and visually interesting.  In the lesson I used this book in, I read the story to the second graders and created words for the word wall with them.  We then talked about pattern and camouflage.  Students were given printouts examples from the book and asked to draw a image big on black paper using pattern.  After the drawing was sketched out, they outlined the drawing with a gold paint marker (one of my classroom essentials).  Note: I created some stencils of various animals from the book for students that have an IEP or others who were having continuous difficulty.  When the animal and pattern were outlined with the gold, students were given chalk pastels to color their drawing with.  To try to prevent a busy image, I sometimes advise to only use three-five colors in their work.