I wanted to make the fish look happy and colorful with fins, tails, gills, and patterns on their bodies.

Sting rays look like flying fish and are cool. I see them in movies. I worry about pollution and about what can be done to help ocean animals. I love fish because I have a pet fish

I tried to make the lioness look as if she was coming out of the darkness. I wanted her to look strong and powerful. I really enjoyed trying scratch board.

I really like dinosaurs. They are big and fierce. I drew this picture in my art group. We are working on observational drawing so I decided to use a model dinosaur. I used watercolors because we have been using them in class and I think I am getting good at using them.

I was inspired by my love of animals, marine biology, geology, and astronomy to create this work of art. To begin, I decided to draw random lines across the paper. Using the shapes I created I thought of different animals that would resemble them. Afterwards, I added paint. I have always enjoyed the contrast between dark and bright colors so I used contrast in my work. This artwork represents the things that are significant to me.

I was inspired to create a creature that no one has ever seen after hearing "Dragons, Dragons and Other Creatures That Never Were" by Eric Carle, in Art Class. I want people to know that my Galaxy is a unicorn dragon! She flies down from the clouds to eat apples and meet humans. I want to make people happy knowing she is up in the clouds and might visit them. It's fun to show my ideas through art.

Rabbits are among my favorite animals. They are big and fluffy. It was a challenge to get the different textures and colors just right. It was also a fun to experience pastels again.

I drew this to remember my parrot because it died. The title of this picture is "The Sun Parrot."

I was inspired by Durer's drawing of a rhinoceros. He drew the animal without ever having seen one. He based his drawing on a written description. Durer wanted to make his drawing as accurate as possible. I used the same process as Durer. I wrote a description of each body part and then used it to create my print.

I was inspired by my teacher, Mrs. McGrath, to make this collage. In class, we made many different shades of rainbow colors. I mixed secondary and tertiary colors. I designed a wolf with these colors. The wolf goes from yellow to purple very smoothly. I think it is a success.

When I was drawing the turtle I felt confident. I love the way it came out and feel awesome!

I like making tempera paintings. It's really messy but fun to use. When I painted the fish I was very excited. I really love the colors fuchsia and sea green.

In class we looked at winter trees with snow and also at the northern cardinal. I was inspired by winter and the holiday season which my mom and I like. This is why I gave my cardinal the Christmas carol book. I also put a worm in the bird's mouth to show it is bringing food home to its family.

The butterfly is an endangered species and I love butterflies. I chose these colors for my background because they are my favorite. Butterflies are endangered because they are losing their habitat. If we plant milkweed in our gardens we will be able to help these gentle creatures.

I like foxes. I am inspired by foxes and so I wanted to create a collage of a fox.

My aunt's bird passed and I was very sad when it died. I was inspired to create this collage in its memory. The rainbow colors represent life and bring the bird back to life, in a way.

Elephants represent freedom and nature. Elephants have big ears that stand out when compared to other animals. Their size is their strength and they perform good deeds. I think elephants are inspiring and sadly, they are endangered.

I love to draw what I see. I looked at photographs for inspiration, chose a bird and then added my imagination to my work.

Did you know?

• There are 1.1 millions dogs in New York City, that makes one for every NYC DOE student!

• The Labrador Retriever is America's favorite breed but in New York City it is the French Bulldog.

• There are more than 576,000 pet cats in NYC.

• The wild parrots of Brooklyn that can be seen at Greenwood Cemetery are descended from a flock that escaped from JFK airport in the 1960s. They were on their way to pet shops.