More books off the shelf

This is the second post of my list of books used in classroom lessons.  Seasonally, I begin with this group of books when school begins after the winter holidays.

"Snowballs" by Lois Ehert is a creative collage book.  Students love to pick out the various details.  I often use this with Kinders.  They sponge paint circles for snowmen on blue construction paper and buttons, felt, googly eyes and various other objects are used to embellish the snowmen.

"Dave the Potter" by Laban Hill.  I use this book to introduce students to a historical value of pottery prior to beginning the winter clay unit.  I typically read it to 1st graders prior to their beginning to construct ugly cups.

"The Little Indian Pottery Maker" by Ann Nolan Clark is a very old book that I use with my Kinders.  It tells the story of the significance of pottery making to native American families.  It is a cultural passing on of skills.  I am not 100% happy with this narrative because it presents the pottery maker as a women's job and seems a bit gender bias but it is a cute little story and also represents the importance of pottery making in history.  The book is out of print but copies can be obtained on Amazon.

"The Valentine Bears" by Eve Bunting.  Hibernating bears generally miss out on celebrating valentine's day with their significant others but in this story,  Mrs. Bear plans a surprise for Mr. Bear.  I use this book with Kinders the week of Valentines Day each year.  I have them cut out hearts to work on cutting skills that I have run off on Red and Pink construction paper.  Bear puppets are assembled using paper bags using the hearts.  I think my original copy master for this project was for a Koala bear.

"One Fish, Two Fish" by Dr. Seuss is the source for a Project with Kinders using watercolor and step by step fish drawing.    I previously posted this project in February 25, 2013 as Dr. Seuss fish by Kinders.

"The Crayon Box that Talked" by Shane DeRolf.  This project is a based on a cooperative lesson about working together which is the theme of the book.  I previously posted that lesson early in the month as Wacky Bird Mural.

"Flotsam" by Dave Wiesner.  Wiesner's books are full of fabulous illustrations and lack words.  They are always terrific to use if you are trying to teach the concept of a picture telling a story.  I generally use his books with Kinders or 1st graders when I am striving for an illustrative narrative with their work.



"The Circus is Coming" by Hilary Knight is a fun book with colorful engaging illustrations.  I posted this lesson recently as Literacy in Art.
I also use "Toulouse Lautrecs The Circus" from Dover Printing and "Circus: Looking at Painting" by Peggy Roalf to accompany this lesson for the visuals.




I've seen numerous post with some fantastic ideas for using Leo Lionni "Swimmy".  I recently used this one with first graders for a lesson on creating space in a composition.  I needed visuals of the ocean and fish for the students to draw from.  It is also a terrific little story about working together cooperatively.


Fourth graders learn about more current artist for a project incorporating shapes to help them to familiarize with 3D shapes prior to MCAS.  One of those artist is Keith Haring and I love the book I wish I didn't have to sleep  It is a fun interactive experience with Haring's works along with a brief historical biography.  The lesson can be found on my blog as Keith Haring Cubes.



With kinders creating circus projects in March, I also bring in A Color Clown Comes to Town by Jane Belk Moncure.  This book is a bit juvenile but the Kinders seem to enjoy it anyway for the predictable outcomes. It's good for color mixing reinforcement.  As I read along, students predict the part of the story where the colors are mixed.  Using shapes, the lesson is about drawing a portrait of a clown.

The list continues but I will do that with another post.  Happy reading, I hope some of these literacy/art connection lesson ideas are helpful to your planning.