Charley Harper Birds

Third Grade Students compared artwork from Charley Harper and John James Audubon. They discovered that while both artists created artwork featuring birds, they did it for very different reasons. Audubon drew and painted birds because he was documenting the types of birds that lived in North America. Harper drew and painted birds because he just had a fascination with wildlife and liked to break things down into a very simplified form.

Students chose a bird to draw and then drew it on a phone book page. ( A nod to earth day:) Then students colored their bird as realistically as possible. They cut out their bird and glued it to another paper. Then they colored the background to show the bird's habitat and in some cases, their diet.