Brazil: Endangered Animals of the Amazon Rainforest Artwork

As part of our 2nd grade for our Arts Around the World curriculum, students are learning about art and music from four different countries -- Brazil, Ghana, Japan and Scotland -- throughout the year. In art class, we started Brazil with our Romero Britto inspired paintings and continued with another project, this time focused on the endangered animals of the Amazon Rainforest. 

We started by learning about the Amazon Rainforest, 60% of which is located in Brazil. Then we looked at the endangered animals of the Amazon Rainforest and discussed what it means to be endangered, which is when there are not many of an animal species left and they are at risk for extinction. We noticed that the word "danger" is part of the word "endangered." We learned specifically about five endangered animals from the Amazon Rainforest, including the hyacinth macaw, jaguar, poison dart frog, golden lion tamarin monkey, and the three-toed sloth. 

We also learned about the Amazon Rainforest and its environment and climate, as well as reasons why certain animals are endangered there. For example, the jaguar is endangered because people hunt them for their fur and the hyacinth macaws are being caught and sold as pets. 

Students selected one animal to sketch, using reference images, and drew the animal it its rainforest habitat. Using oil pastels, students added color and thought about the texture of their chosen animal. 

During the following class, students added details to the background to suggest the Amazon rainforest, such as leaves, branches, and vines. We made sure to leave some of the white paper showing. 

Then we painted over their oil pastel drawing with liquid watercolor to create a resist, since the oil pastel and watercolor paint do not mix. We used shades of green, blue, and violet to paint the background of our artwork.

We also heard the story The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry, a children's book about the Amazon Rainforest. The story begins with two men who enter the rainforest with the intent to cut down the great kapok tree. One man starts to cut down the tree and eventually falls asleep. While he is sleeping, all of the animals that live in or off of the kapok tree come to the man to whisper in his ear and tell him about the significance of the kapok tree to their lives as well as to the world. The man wakes up, picks up his ax and prepares to cut the tree, but then he remembers what the animals told him and finally decides not to cut it down.

As a conclusion to Brazil, students participated in a gallery walk to see everyone's finished artwork. Students shared their observations afterwards, noticing the bright colors, different choices, and vibrant patterns. Here are some finished examples: 

Amelia, 2nd Grade (McCarthy)

Audrey W., 2nd Grade (Hinds Thiemann)

Dakotah, 2nd Grade (O'Connor)

Joshua, 2nd Grade (O'Connor)

Kai, 2nd Grade (Stone)

Katherina, 2nd Grade (O'Connor)

Lucas P., 2nd Grade (Pearse)

Sannan, 2nd Grade (McCarthy)

Violet, 2nd Grade (O'Connor)

Will, 2nd Grade (Hinds Thiemann)

Xavier, 2nd Grade (McCarthy)

Brazil: Romero Britto Inspired Paintings

This year in 2nd grade for our Arts Around the World curriculum, students will be learning about art and music from four different countries -- Brazil, Ghana, Japan and Scotland -- throughout the year. In art class, we will be learning about artists and art forms from that country and in music class with Ms. Patashnick, students will be learning about musicians, music and dance from that country.

Starting with our exploration of Brazil, we learned a few facts about Brazil such as the capital being the city of Brasilia, the main language spoken being Portuguese and soccer being a very popular sport there! We also learned that many Hosmer students and families are from Brazil, have family there, and speak Portuguese at home!

Romero Britto, Children of the World (2006)

In art, we learned about contemporary Brazilian artist, Romero Britto. Britto was born and raised in Brazil and now lives and works in Miami, Florida. He still makes artwork today and is well known for his colorful art, which is on display in many museums around the world and also in public spaces, such as airports, parks, and shopping areas. 

Romero Britto, A Brand New Day (2006)

We looked at some examples of his artwork and students noticed the bold lines, colorful patterns, shapes, and fun, playful nature. We brainstormed our own ideas for artwork, inspired by Britto's style. 

Students came up with four different sketches for ideas, focusing on one object -- such as a shape, symbol, food, animal, or alphabet letter -- and adding different lines, shapes and patterns to that design. Many students were inspired by Romero Britto's hearts with wings, as well as soccer balls, dogs, cats, ice cream cones, and fruit!

The following class, students then selected their favorite sketch and drew it larger on paper in order to paint. Using bright colors, including fluorescent colors, students painted the different areas of their chosen object. 

After letting that dry, during the following class we added patterns on top of these areas. We learned about complementary colors, which are colors that are across from each other on the color wheel and help each other stand out. Students demonstrated at least one complementary color pairing with their pattern painting. 

After finishing the patterns, students used black paint to outline their object and separate the areas of different pattern within their work, like Romero Britto does in his artwork. This took some careful painting, and students were very focused!
As a final step, students cut out their design once it was dry and glued it onto a background. 

We chose the background paper color carefully, looking at which colors would help our painting stand out. Using colored and metallic Sharpie markers, we added patterns and designs to the background. Below are examples are our finished Romero Britto inspired artwork:

Arlo, 2nd Grade (O'Connor)

Audrey L., 2nd Grade (Hinds)

Emily, 2nd Grade (Stone)

Gabi, 2nd Grade (O'Connor)

Hailey, 2nd Grade (Stone)

Kenji, 2nd Grade (McCarthy)

Lazaros, 2nd Grade (McCarthy)

Liliana, 2nd Grade (O'Connor)

Mie, 2nd Grade (O'Connor)

Nico, 2nd Grade (Pearse)

Nina, 2nd Grade (McCarthy)

Nirvaan, 2nd Grade (McCarthy)

Seta, 2nd Grade (Pearse)

Romero Britto Inspired Embossed Metal Artworks

Continuing our exploration of Brazil, as part of our Arts Around the World curriculum this year for 2nd grade, we learned about contemporary Brazilian artist, Romero Britto. Britto was born and raised in Brazil and now lives and works in Miami, Florida. He still makes artwork today and is well known for his art, which is on display in many museums around the world and also in public spaces, such as airports, parks, and shopping areas.

Romero Britto, Children of the World (2006)

We looked at some examples of his artwork and students noticed the bold lines, colorful patterns, shapes, and fun, playful nature. We brainstormed our own ideas for artwork, inspired by Britto's style. 

Romero Britto, A Brand New Day (2006)

Students came up with four different sketches for ideas, focusing on one object -- such as a shape, symbol, food, animal, or alphabet letter -- and adding different lines, shapes and patterns to that design. Students then selected their favorite sketch and drew it on a square piece of paper, using a Sharpie to outline their shapes and lines and make those lines thicker.

The following class, students learned about embossing, which is a technique where you carve, mold or stamp a design on a surface, like paper or metal, so that it stands out in relief. The two materials typically used for embossing are paper and metal. Metal embossing is used to put a design on metal sheets. The metal is pushed with an embossing tool or stylus to create a raised effect on the opposite side. 

Students taped their design on top of an aluminum sheet, so it would not move around. Then they placed this on top of a piece of felt, which provided a softer surface to work on. Using a wooden stylus, students pressed down on all their drawn lines. Students were amazed to see their lines coming through, creating a bumpy raised design on the opposite side of the metal sheet! 

After they went over all their lines once, they removed the paper on top and went over all their lines again with a blunt pencil. This creates a bumpy texture that you can see on both sides of the metal, but we used the side where the lines were raised. After students were done embossing, they used colored Sharpie markers to color in the areas in between the raised lines of their design. The lines created borders for their shapes, and we discussed color choice and how to use complementary colors to help their designs and patterns stand out.

The final step involved getting the metal hot glued to a background color, creating a frame for their work. Below are some examples of our finished embossed metal artworks, inspired by Romero Britto: 

Priya, 2nd grade (O'Leary)

Gavin, 2nd grade (O'Leary)

Mia, 2nd grade (O'Leary)

Lory, 2nd grade (O'Leary)

Ethan, 2nd grade (O'Leary)

Yulissa, 2nd grade (McIsaac)

Pedro, 2nd grade (McIsaac)

Karolena, 2nd grade (McIsaac)

Maria Clara, 2nd grade (Pearse)

Lily L., 2nd grade (Pearse)

Deakin, 2nd grade (O'Connor)

Destanie, 2nd grade (McCarthy)

Raffi, 2nd grade (O'Connor)

Aliah, 2nd grade (McCarthy)

Brixton, 2nd grade (O'Connor)

Connor H., 2nd grade (O'Connor)

Ella, 2nd grade (McCarthy)