Positive/Negative Space Stencils– First Grade

First, the kids looked at little animal figurines for ideas.  I did not limit them to drawing just the animals, so some chose to turn their animals into mythical creatures or draw something else entirely.  They drew their animal on tag board, cut it out and then used that as a stencil.

The students traced their animal stencil over and over again, flipping it around and arranging their composition. 

In addition, they were able to use some of my letter and shape stencils from a box I had.

Then, they colored the negative space (background) of the picture.  They were to leave the positive space uncolored.  Some students chose to add defining details (such as eyes).

This student did not want to make an animal stencil, but chose to make a wizard instead!