Thanksgiving 
Still Life
Students use oil pastels to shade construction paper fruits and vegetables.
Materials
- 12"x18" black construction paper
- 9"x12" orange construction paper
- two 4 1/2" x 6" red construction paper
- one 4 1/2" x 6" yellow construction paper
- one 9" x 6" green construction paper
- one 4 1/2" x 6" purple construction paper
- Oil pastels
- Pencils
- Scissors
- white glue
Directions
On the orange construction paper, use the pencil to very lightly draw 5 tall skinny ovals side by side across the page. Try to use most of the page. You want to have a big pumpkin. Then draw an oval around all of the skinny ovals. This will make your pumpkin shape. Cut out the pumpkin on the outside oval. You can erase the inside ovals, or just turn them to the back side.
On the red construction paper, use the pencil to draw a trapezoid (almost a square, but slightly smaller on the bottom) with two circles on the top. Then draw around all of the shapes, staying the same distance from the shapes all of the way around. This will be your apple shape. Make another apple on the other piece of red construction paper. Cut out both apples.
On the yellow construction paper, use the pencil to draw a tall skinny oval, and a wider oval underneath. Then draw around all of the shapes, staying the same distance from the shapes al of the way around. This will be your pear shape. Cut out the pear.
- On the purple construction paper, draw and cut out at least 30 circles. You can trace a quarter to make the circles. You can also fold the paper to cut out more than one circle at a time. These will become grapes.
On the green construction paper, draw and cut out several leaf shapes. An easy way to make a leaf is to start with a line. Then add several V shapes down the line. Make the Vs smaller at the top and larger at the bottom. Then draw around all of the lines, staying the same distance away all of the way around.
- Now use the oil pastels to shade each of the shapes you cut out. With brown, draw curved lines to show the sections of the pumpkin. Then smudge the lines with your finger, going back and forth across the line to spread out the color slightly. Don't forget to make the stem spot on the pumpkin!
- On the pear, draw a light green line along both sides. Use your finger to smudge the line in toward the center of the pear. The shading should be darker on the edges and fade out toward the center. Think about how a pear is round, and move your finger in a slight curve as you smudge. You can add some darker green along the edges and smudge over the light green. After you finish the green shading, add a few small brown specks all over the pear.
- On the apples, use brown or dark green to shade along one side. Use red or pink to shade along the other side. Use dark brown to shade in the stem spot.
- On the grapes, use white to add a small C-shaped highlight on each circle.
- Use green or brown to shade the veins on the leaves.
- After all of the pieces are shaded, arrange them on the black construction paper. Remember that grapes are connected, and bunches of grapes start with a lot of grapes at the top, and end with one grape at the bottom of the bunch. Overlap some of the other pieces to give your still life some depth. When you have an arrangement you like, glue all of the pieces.
