Here is a cute lesson that I did a while ago with my second grade students. It’s a great lesson for achieving good cutting skills which I think by second grade is pretty crucial. The steps to draw the snake are fun and easy but creating the grass can be challenging for many second graders.

Supplies for the snake

12″ x 18″ white sulphite paper, oil pastels, tempera paint, scissors, glue, glitter (optional).

Supplies for the background 

Blue and green sulphite paper, sponge and white tempera paint.

Drawing the snake

I encourage you to try a directed line approach to drawing the snake or else many children will go through a number of sheets of paper before achieving a snake that has enough girth to cut out safely.

1. Starting at the top corner of your paper, draw a sideways oval. This is the snake’s head. Add a half-circle shape to both sides of the oval (eyes). An alternate way to draw the snake is to create a drawing as shown above. I find it is helpful though, to do the former.

2. Starting on one side of the oval, draw a curved line (a letter “S” is a good suggestion) all the way to the bottom of the paper.

3.  Go back up to the oval (head) and draw another line along side the curved line, matching the curves as you go. Go slowly! If you run into the other side of the snake, draw another line.

4. Now that you have the basic shape, fill in the snake with patterns.

5. Paint or color in the patterns and if you’d like, add glue and glitter to some areas.

6. Once any paint has dried, cut out the snake.

The Background:

1. Cut a sheet of green 12″ x 18″ paper in half and use one half to cut blades of grass. The grass can be cut as individual blades or as one.

2. Place grass onto a blue sheet of paper and glue the bottom part of the grass only. Sponge paint clouds onto blue paper.

3. Place snake onto background and weave through grass. Carefully glue down snake and grass.