Art Classes: Level II

Level II-Art Lesson 7: The Sri Lankan Landscape with an Elephant

Learn to draw a simple landscape and discover Elli Poo paper

The lesson is suitable for students in grade 2 through adult.

Art Lesson Description:

This lesson has an interesting origin. It began when an American traveler met a paper maker in Sri Lanka, and the two of them decided on a way to save the elephants native to Sri Lanka—by making paper out of elephant poo! If you want to learn the rest of the story, visit the Mr. Elli Poo website. The picture for this lesson is from a greeting card made of paper from the Elli Poo LLC, the company these two gentlemen started.

The lesson begins with a practice drawing of just the elephant in the picture. The guided lesson shows how to create depth as you draw the entire landscape. The chalk pastels are satisfying to beginners who want to apply a simple coat of flat color and to more advanced students who are interested in color mixing and a greater sense of dimensionality.

The lesson suggests using construction paper, but if you can get Ellie Poo paper, try it! It makes a great surface for chalk pastels.

This lesson includes both POWERPOINT and VIDEO versions of the lesson plus 2 downloadable printouts: a warmup and a drawing of the elephant and landscape.

List of Supplies for Each Student:

1 Sri Lankan elephant warm-up (this comes with the lesson)
1 sheet of colored construction paper (#ad) or Elli Poo paper
1 sheet of printer paper cut to 8” x 8”
1 fine tipped permanent black marker (#ad)
1 set of chalk pastels (#ad)

Suggestions for Cross-Curricular Connections:

Social Studies: Study the history and geography of Sri Lanka.

Read Leap & Hop Sri Lanka, Children Travel Book (#ad)
Video about Sri Lanka
15 facts about Sri Lanka

Literature

The Road From Elephant Pass (#ad) a novel about friendship in the recent conflict in Sri Lanka for young adults.
Children's Stories of Wit and Humor: Stories from Sri Lanka: (The Grand-Old-Man and The Big Five) (#ad) Stories from Sri Lanka is a peek-a-boo into a wealth of such literature found in cultures in this part of the world such as Sri Lanka.

Science: Find out why the population of elephants in Sri Lanka has dwindled. Find out what other wild animals live there. How do elephants prevent themselves from getting sunburned? How many toes do elephants have?