‘Come Down Cat!’

This art task was created by the children in Year 4. We read the book “Come Down Cat!” and looked at the positions of the cat on each page in the book, focussing also on the shadows produced by the cat throughout the book.

The children were given the task of creating their own cat using 2 chenille stems, one of which were cut in half to create the legs of the cat. A colour was chosen for their cat and they wound the wool around the chenille stems, starting at the tail, to create the shape of the cat they were happy with.

Before finishing the wrapping of the wool, they added some fly wire mesh to create the whiskers. Felt or material were used to create the nose and ears and finally goggle eyes to bring their feline creature into life! We then investigated shadows and how they are created, we used torches and shone them at different angles to create the shadow of the cat. The children outlined this carefully and used watercolour paint to create their shadows.

It was a challenging activity for the children but as you can see the cats are very unique and have loads of character.

Melinda Wharton
Visual Arts Teacher
St Simons School, Rowville
Suitable for level 3