Third Grade Eric Carle Project

Of all the authors out there for kids, I think Eric Carle is one of the best. His creative mind, simple rhythm of words just for kids, and especially his montage artwork that is so colorful and full of texture. Lovely.

We started by drawing an animal in a simple form - no background, no little details, and as simple of an outline as possible. It is tough for some students to draw an animal big enough to fill the paper. Then we looked at Eric Carle's website and his video of how he makes his colorful paper for his animals! I had decided ahead of time that we would be using tempera paint and heavier paper instead of Carle's acrylics and tissue. We looked at what colors the animals could be (real color or imaginary color? I let them decide) and they had fun with mixing colors and making great texture on their paint with rollers, stamps, and the other end of the paintbrush. We will definitely need a few more days to play with color and texture - this is very fun! After we paint we will start cutting and gluing our almost-handmade paper to make our animals come alive. By the way, the kids look unhappy and serious here - trust me, we were having fun! They were happy and intent on creating and when they saw me with the camera, they all clammed up!