The idea
For a first grader in the Pacific Northwest, orcas aren’t an abstraction — they’re neighbors. This lesson brings the region’s most iconic animal into the classroom: how an orca’s body is built, how these whales live and hunt together in the Puget Sound, and why they matter to this place. Then the science becomes art in the medium orcas were made for: ink. An orca is already a masterpiece of high-contrast design, and bold black-and-white illustration teaches students that strong shapes — not lots of colors — are what make an image powerful.
How it begins
Students start by learning the orca’s form — the dorsal fin, the saddle patch, the white eye patch that isn’t an eye at all — and sketching its sweeping curves in pencil before a single drop of ink commits the design to paper.