We have fallen in love with Eric Carle and his wonderful stories! Can you blame us? The beautiful illustrations and endearing animal characters make storytime magical. Following our herb and vegetable planting experiences described in our last post, we were eager to try our “green thumbs” at planting seeds. We planted wheat berry seeds in recycled pop bottles to create a vertical hanging garden. Take a peek at how quickly wheatgrass sprouted! We’re busy trimming and measuring the grass.
We then asked the children what they noticed about Eric Carle’s illustrations. Some of the comments included: “He mixes his colors up," "He makes scratches in the pictures," and “The sunshines have a face.”
We decided to explore the author and illustrator’s process for making pictures in order to create our own Eric Carle inspired spring canvas of a sunflower. This would be a multi-step process. The first step was to learn how to make the paper that the flower would be made of. During Morning Meeting we watched a video on how to make painted colored paper, like Eric Carle, which included mixing bright colors and adding those unique “scratches.” You can watch the how to video here.
We decided to explore the author and illustrator’s process for making pictures in order to create our own Eric Carle inspired spring canvas of a sunflower. This would be a multi-step process. The first step was to learn how to make the paper that the flower would be made of. During Morning Meeting we watched a video on how to make painted colored paper, like Eric Carle, which included mixing bright colors and adding those unique “scratches.” You can watch the how to video here.
We read the beloved Eric Carle story, The Tiny Seed, to explore the life cycle of a seed. The children observed similarities in the illustrations to those of other Eric Carle stories we had read, such as Brown Bear, Brown Bear, and A House for Hermit Crab. We gave each child an Eric Carle book and asked them to explore the illustrations and share what they noticed about them. You can see the energy and excitement in the video below.
While Eric Carle uses tissue paper, our motor skills are more adept at working with a thicker style of paper, so we chose to paint on white drawing paper. The children observed illustrations of the sunflower from The Tiny Seed, and stated the many colors that they thought made up each part. For example, they noticed the red petals were made using red, yellow, and orange paint. The children next selected these colors from oil pastel paints, a new medium for us. Using a palette, the children worked to make the desired colors. Before the paint had dried, they quickly used a fork, craft stick, or other end of the paint brush to make the “scratches” and mixed lines that Eric Carle so regularly does. We soon had a large stack of colorfully blended paper.
Our next step was to draw the sunflower and some insects to serve as the template for our painted paper. Our classroom is full of budding illustrators and we asked a few students who often spend Indoor Exploration time creating art, to draft a sunflower, butterfly, and bee. Each of these three children worked diligently to create their image. To encourage the drafting and revision process, we asked these children if there were aspects of their drawing they thought were the best and aspects that they’d like to improve upon. Using Eric Carle’s illustrations as references, the students remarked on areas they could improve, such as making a wing pointier, or the petals wider. The artists created multiple drafts until they were satisfied with their very best work. Even at a very young age, it is important to emphasize the drafting and revision process as this builds focus, planning, and intentionality. To see more of what this powerful feedback and revision process can look like with young children, view the famous educational clip, Austin’s Butterfly.
Next up: the final drafts are ready to be enlarged and transferred to the painted Eric Carle inspired paper. We can’t wait to see the finished product...stay tuned!