Learning Art Through Literature

I love reading books with My Little Bookworm and seeing his interests and curiosity sparked. He gets interested in everything he reads about! That's how we have been doing a lot of his homeschooling these past few weeks - we read lots of books!

This past week we read Color Chaos. It was one of his choices from the library, and he loved learning about the primary and secondary colors as we read through the story. Even after the story was done, he was walking around the house categorizing everything he saw according to its color.

I decided to capitalize on his interest and put him to work doing some color wheel projects.

We did this fun science experiment using water, food coloring, and cups. It didn't work for us, but I guess that's what makes science so interesting - it's unpredictable sometimes. We talked a lot about what was supposed to happen, and reasons why it maybe didn't work. He loved it all the same.

Then I thought he would love making a color wheel. But when I suggested the idea he balked. "I don't like coloring or painting," he declared (his interests seem to change daily lately). He said, " I only like doing things with toys." So I made that work, and had him create a color wheel with his favorite toys!

Again, he loved it, and was very engaged with the work. Even after he finished the wheel, he made several "robots" and pointed out to us all that he had used all the primary and secondary colors to create them - straight off his wheel!

There are so many fun books about art. Here are a few I really like. Read them with your little guys and see where their interest and imagination takes them! Real and lasting learning only seems to happen for my kids when they care - and they usually care about what they read about in books!

 

Just Add Picture Books!

Looking for an easy way to make an ordinary activity in your home or classroom something special? Just add a picture book! Literally, that's all you have to do.

You might assume I spend my days when I'm at home with my preschooler doing all kinds of creative, throughly planned out, educational activities. I don't.

But when my son pulled his finger paints out of the art cabinet this past week and wanted to get messy, it made me think of Leo Lionni's book Little Blue and Little Yellow. I went and grabbed it off my bookshelf thinking it might be fun to show him a story about mixing colors to inspire him with his paints.

This led to my son mixing his colors, and narrating his own little story as he worked. It was fun and beautiful to watch. I hadn't planned or prepped anything. He asked to do an activity and I just added a picture book!

And here's a short video of my little guy's creative process!

How Craft Projects Help Early Literacy

Each week at Literacy Launchpad we do an activity of some sort. Often it's a game that goes along with whatever literacy skill we are currently practicing, and often it's also a craft project that correlates with the story we read that week.

The idea behind the craft project is usually to give the students something fun to do that will help them remember the skill we worked on, and/or remember the story we read. It gives them a token to take home to be excited about and, to act as a conversation starter between them and their parents, so my students can share what they did in class that day.

I have had some parents get confused about why I prep a lot of the parts of our craft projects. For example, they wonder why I might pre-cut the parts of a construction paper animal. The reason for this prep is so we have enough time to actually complete the project within our 30 minute time frame for class. Also, the point of these projects isn't to teach my students fine motor or art skills. If I get too hung up on that stuff, my students miss the actual point of the projects we do in class together. 

What I have discovered over the years of teaching Literacy Launchpad is that our class projects also serve as a catalyst for great class discussions. It's tough to keep preschoolers' focus for an at-length discussion of our story, but give those busy hands something to work on and they will chat and chat and chat! The ideas and opinions they will share - amazing! The projects serve as a great jumping off point for lots of great discussions about the week's book, or about the skill we're working on. The best is when the discussions get really deep, or go in an interesting direction I didn't anticipate.  

So whether you're a teacher or a parent, consider a project to go along with your stories sometimes. But don't let the process of the project itself become the focus, use it as a way to get your kids thinking and talking! Keep the wheels turning as they are gluing and coloring and arranging... And see what brilliant ideas your kids start sharing!

What are some of your favorite projects that go along with stories you read your kids?

Literature-Inspired Creativity

I love to see a child hear a story, and then take some inspiration from it and go crazy with their own creativity! That has been happening at Literacy Launchpad all month! Hooray!

Literature-Inspired Creativity has been our theme this August. I was pleasantly surprised to see how well my students were engaged in this unit. They loved every bit of it, and showed amazing creativity. I was especially impressed with my youngest students; they usually don't say a whole lot, but I saw their participation increase this month. Everybody had original ideas and tons of enthusiasm. It made me really sad to see this unit end.

Each week we read a unique story, and then took that special element and let it be our inspiration for a fun project. Our first week it was creating a picture by incorporating "Lots of Dots!" Week two we read Traction Man Is Here and then designed capes for our own action hero identity. We wrapped things up with Call Me Gorgeous and collaged together our own creatures, with our own special names for them!

Check out the photos from our month of creativity below. I'll try to answer any questions in the comments if you have them!

Handmade Kid Lit Art Canvases For Sale!

Lyle, Lyle Crocodile (Bernard Waber) - $20

Cinderella (K.Y. Craft) - $15

I've been wanting to begin making these treasures for a while now. The swiftly approaching holiday season provided the perfect inspiration for me to carve out some time in my schedule.

I'm selling these canvases to raise money for our Ethiopian Adoption! All the money earned from sales will go directly into our adoption fund.

The canvases are made using up-cycled kid lit books. :) A great way to celebrate a story and its art! Email me at watsonadoption@gmail.com if you would like to purchase either (or both) of these. They're ready to find a great home! I have priced the Cinderella canvas slightly lower since it was the first one I made. It's beautiful, but not as "polished" as those that followed.

Check back for more art to be posted soon!

And visit here for more beautiful handmade items (and coffee!) that all helps our adoption!