The One and Only Ivan

Oh Ivan... We finished the book the week before Thanksgiving, so for a culminating opinion writing activity my students created their own version of Ivan.

I took 2 shades of gray construction paper and cut them into 3 different sizes.  

The dark gray was 9 x 12, the light gray were 9 x 6 and another 4.5 x 6.  

To create Ivan:

1.  The students took their fists and placed it on the top of the dark gray paper.  They drew a large half circle around their fist to create Ivan's head.  From there we drew diagonal lines from the base of his head to the outer edge of the paper for his shoulders.  We then cut out that portion of the paper.  We moved to his feet and made 2 cuts into the paper as far as their scissors would reach with one snip.  From there we cut a curved lines on each side from his shoulders to his feet.  

2.  The light gray paper was a different story.  The students took the larger of the 2 pieces, and turned it horizontal.  We drew a W on the top middle, then cut it out for Ivan's chest.  Then we drew a large U from the outer edges of the W.   You can see the shape in the pictures.  :)  This became Ivan's belly, where they had to write their opinion paragraph.

3.  For Ivan's head, we took the smallest of the papers and drew a large heart on it, then we drew an oval at the base for his mouth.  We cut out the outside lines of the heart and oval, then glued it down so we couldn't see any of the other lines. 

4.  They then had to write an opinion paragraph on where they felt that animals should live.