Core Skills Analysis
Visual Arts
Daivey coloured a picture of a butterfly, using colour to develop and personalize an image. Through this activity, she practised coordinating hand movements with the visual choices she made on the page. She also engaged in an age-appropriate artmaking experience in which the butterfly served as the subject of her work.
Tips
Tips Invite Daivey to make another butterfly picture using a different colour palette, then compare how the colours change the artwork’s mood. She could look at photographs of real butterflies and create a labelled drawing that shows their visible patterns and colours. For a hands-on extension, make a symmetrical butterfly by decorating one half of a folded page and printing it onto the other half. She could also write a short caption or imaginative story inspired by her finished picture.
Book Recommendations
- The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle: A colourful picture book about a caterpillar’s transformation into a butterfly, connecting art with life cycles.
- A Butterfly Is Patient by Dianna Hutts Aston: An illustrated nonfiction introduction to butterfly traits and variety that can inspire further looking and drawing.
Learning Standards
- Ontario Arts Curriculum, Visual Arts — Creating and Presenting (Grade 1, D1): Colouring a butterfly picture provided an opportunity to make an artwork and communicate visually through colour.
- Ontario Arts Curriculum, Visual Arts — Reflecting, Responding, and Analysing (Grade 1, D2): Discussing the colours and choices in her finished picture can support reflection on and response to visual art.
Try This Next
- Create a butterfly-colouring worksheet with spaces to name the colours used.
- Draw a second butterfly with a new colour palette and compare the two pictures.
- Write a one-sentence caption or imaginative story for the coloured butterfly.