Saturday Night at the Dinosaur Stomp Paintings

     It is often difficult to figure out what to do when there are only two or three art classes left in the school year.  With third grade I decided to do a lesson I found at the Deep Space Sparkle blog based on the book Saturday Night at the Dinosaur Stomp by Carol Diggory Shields and illustrated by Scott Nash.  The dinosaurs have a party in the book and dance and have a great time, and the illustrations are great.  The students drew dancing dinosaurs on 18" x 24" watercolor paper and then outlined the drawings with black crayon.  We used liquid watercolors (most of which I made from old markers like I learned from Mrs. Picasso) and the students experimented with adding salt and rubbing alcohol to the wet paint.  The lesson was simple and quick, and the students felt very successful with their artworks.