Cats, Cats, Cats!

I have two versions of ways you can go about this project.
The cats also work on their own- the kids love to play with them and take them home after they cut them out and draw details them on them even if you don't have time to make a background for them.

First have the students only draw the outline of the cat: 

the body, head, ears, tail, legs

then I give them yellow and red tempera to mix into orange

(they can also use the back end of the brush to draw designs into the paint)

After they dry students outline them in black marker, add face details, and patterns.

Then cut them out!

One version I did was using shadows. They traced their cut out cats on black paper and made a shadow for their new friend. 

I recently did a new version.

I cut up old book pages and newspaper. 

The students glued them down to white paper to create a brick wall.

Then they painted over the collage with reds and browns to create brick.