UNLESS (a Seuss-tacular Earth Day Art Project)

I have spent so much time in my Kindergarten Art classes seemingly cramming last-minute techniques into the last six (eek!!!) weeks of school. I wanted to take this week to do a fun project with my kiddos that focused on using art to make a statement (as well as the profession of illustrating books)!

April 26, 1970 was the first celebrated Earth Day.  Dr. Seuss wrote "The Lorax" in 1971 to show the harmful effects of pollution and environmental issues that we, as humans, are responsible for (namely the deforestation in the Pacific Northwest). When you look beyond the colorful pictures and the tongue-twisting rhymes you realize the book is really about loving creatures, reducing our waste, and conserving our resources. Without getting too political, I want students to realize how we can reduce and recycle in the art room. 

For this project we used:

7 popsicle sticks per student

5 8"x8" sheets of tissue paper

12"x18" yellow paper (for background)

12"x6" colored paper for background of landscape

12"x4" green paper for grass in foreground

Sharpie markers

Luckily, all my colored papers, including tissue paper, were leftover scraps from other projects!

The students started off by making black lines on all 7 popsicle sticks. These will make up the tree trunks. I was also teaching the students the difference between foreground and background, so we stacked 2 popsicle sticks on top of each other to make large (taller trees) in the foreground, and used individual popsicle sticks to make smaller trees in the background (or distance).

Students then crumpled up their tissue paper and made the Truffula tufts atop the trees.

If students had time, I let them copy the "UNLESS" quote from the back of the book. This made their artwork a "statement" piece.

 These next two photos are just for your enjoyment. I could have taken a zillion pictures of my kids today with their tongues out. My son does it too. Is it a proven fact that it helps you concentrate?!

Their final product:

Adore.

And speaking of adore, here is one more little gem for you. My son's "family project" for the month of March was to make a hat together for their hat parade at school. He begged and begged and begged to make a Lorax hat. We made this out of fun foam and yellow feathers. 

I have a Pinterest board dedicated to more fun units that I have found on The Lorax (while I "only" teach art, I pinned lots of different disciplines) that you can find here.

I hope this Earth Day, April 22nd, you are inspired to create some Lorax-themed projects! If you do, please link your projects in the comment section!