I started this blog to also include some ideas from my classroom. I am currently teaching Pre-Kindergarten at an amazing private school and bring a lot of my ideas and creativity to my lessons. Some of my crazy ideas turn out great while others become learning opportunities for me as well... =) All I hope is that some of the ideas and lessons that I share on here can inspired creativity within your homes or classroom to encourage fun and unique learning opportunities for young children.
Being an artsy and very visual person, I cannot help but fixate on illustrations on children's books before even reading them. A book can have the most amazing plot but it can be a complete disappointment without illustrations to appropriately convey the story's magic. A story is only as good as the illustrations that accompany the words.
Eric Carle has always been one of my all time favorite children's book authors and it's his unique and colorful illustrations that make his books come to life. With my class learning about animal and insect life cycles, I wanted to use Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar as inspiration for our butterfly life cycle bulletin board display. I haven't hung the finished products yet as its Winter Break right now but I will be sure to post the final display once its complete.
This art lesson was a two day project to create a caterpillar that resembled The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Unlike Eric Carle, I chose to use art paper instead of tissue paper. I teach 4 year olds and let's be realistic, they would destroy tissue paper if I told them to paint on it.
As a substitute to tissue paper, I prepped for the project by painting our art paper in various colors to serve as a the background for the caterpillars. I have 22 children my class so that took some time to paint each sheet but this way the children could decorate their own paper.
Day 1:
To begin the lessons, I introduced the art of Eric Carle and explained how he used such a unique technique to create the collages for his books. For the first part of the lesson, I had the children customize their own papers by decorating them with different designs. I instructed the children to first choose a color and draw some kind of line (squiggly, zig zag, or straight) pattern across the whole paper. After completing their lines, they had to choose another color to draw dots all over the paper. Our art time is in the morning so I was able to prepare for the next day in the afternoon.
I didn't take pictures of this but once the papers were dried, I traced 6 circles on the back. I just traced the inside of a packing tape roll since that size worked well. I also prepared the other elements for the collage elements for the head and body of the caterpillar.
You can download a simple template that I created for the pieces needed to create the caterpillar's body here:
Backing for Body
Small Details
Day 2:
In my classroom, we highlight each child's name on their paper to allow them additional practice writing their names. This also serves as a way for me to strategically place the children so some of my boys are sitting at different tables. So as I was passing out the supplies, I made sure to give each child a circle piece from their original painting. It was an additional challenge to do this but I really wanted them to have part of their work in the finished product. I then passed out all the other pieces of the collage in preparation for the children to construct their caterpillar.
I demonstrated the sequence of steps before having the children start and, as always, reminded to 'dot, dot, NOT a lot' when using the glue. =)
I had the children glue down 6 circles down onto the backing piece first. The backing helps to make sure that the whole class created a caterpillar that is similar in size and also helped me display them later without having to cut them out. The circles will need to be overlapped a bit. The circles are followed by the red head and then the collage is finished with the other elements being glued on (2 ovals for the eyes, 2 antennae and 6 little legs). I took the colors from the book but of course, they can be done in anyway you would want.
The class did a fantastic job following directions and they really loved having circle pieces from some of their classmates. I wish I had more pictures of them putting the caterpillars together but my camera conveniently died shortly after this one picture was taken. Bummer...
Here are a few pictures of their finished caterpillars!
I love how the antennae on these 2 look like eyebrows. =) Makes them look confused or angry haha
I'll be sure to post a follow up of how the Butterfly Life Cycle Bulletin Board turns out. I can't wait to see these adorable little guys displayed. It requires some extra steps with the cutting but it's so worth it when you see the final product. Hope you try it out!
