Over the February break, I was luck enough to take a little trip to Washington D.C. I adored seeing the pandas at the National Zoo and they inspired this lesson.

Last year, after teaching how to use shading to make a more realistic picture ,I had my 5th graders work on a still life. This yeat they got to try their hand at shading a panda. I think they did a wonderful job! They used tempra paint for the panda, and chalk pastels for the bamboo background.