Chameleon Watercolor Painting

This first grader amazes me every week. While the rest of the class was doing variations of my rainbow and spotted sample art, he very quietly and deliberately painted his chameleon full of stripes. Not just a few, but all across the body and then more behind. What more can you ask for than to have students start with your idea, then run with it and make it their own?1. I did a follow along drawing with students first, beginning with the chameleon head, then extended body, then curved tail. Legs and eyes and mouth were added.2. All lines were traced with a Sharpie marker.3. Students used Dick Blick liquid watercolors on watercolor paper. To make colors run together, they needed to overlap paint while it was still wet. Emil’s colors were pretty dry when he made stripes so they kept their clean edges.