Art & Illustration
April Lesson Plan for Third and Fourth Grade
Animals Animals by Eric Carle
Please use the teacher’s computer to open the lesson plan located on Patterson’s website. It is located in the Art Awareness area in the fifth grade tab titled April. Use the teacher’s Smart board or overhead projector to display the art examples on the chalkboard and use for discussion questions.
Lesson Information
For this lesson we will not be concentrating on a specific artist. Instead you will be reading Eric Carle’s, Animals Animals. This book is a collection of poetry illustrated by Eric Carle. Please flip through this book and read some of the poems. Notice that in some cases Carle has used one illustration to convey the meaning of two different poems. When discussing the illustrations please note his use of vibrant colors, visible brushstrokes, and collage. Collage is an artistic composition of materials and objects pasted on a surface, often with connecting lines and similar colors. The collage technique is prevalent throughout this book. Discuss the butterfly on page 38. How do you think this illustration was created? Do you think Carle first painted on paper then cut out the shapes for the parts of the butterfly wing? If you look closely, the brushstrokes do not always match up. Perhaps he assembled the butterfly with the collage technique then added additional details on the completed image. See if the students can pick out this technique in any of the other illustrations.
For this month’s project, the students will be creating their own illustration for either the poem Butterfly (pg. 38) or How Doth the Little Crocodile (pg. 41). To add interest to their illustration, the main image will be drawn on tin foil with permanent marker and then pasted to a piece of construction paper. Additional details can then be added by drawing them directly on the paper. This will help to add interest to the illustration.
Vocabulary Words
Line - An element of art that refers to the continuous mark made on some surface by a moving point. Lines can be vertical, horizontal, diagonal, straight, curved, thick, thin, etc. Lines often define a space and may create an outline of an object.
Illustrator – An artist who draws pictures for books, magazine, and other printed materials.
Texture – creating a visual “feel” of two-dimensional art.
Discussion Questions
Here are a few questions to ask the students while discussing poems in Animals Animals.
- How did Carle create texture on the Elephant (pg. 30)? (maybe wax with paint overlay)
- Do the illustrations help you visualize the poems better?
- Do you think that the colors, collage technique and use of texture make the illustrations more interesting?
- Next time you are creating an illustration will you consider the use of texture and collage?
Mixed media Poem Illustration
Materials: Project example, construction paper, crayons, tin foil, permanent markers, textured fabric, white glue, and poem examples.
Demonstrate the lesson by following these step by step instructions, please remember to have the students put their name on the back of their paper.
- Have the students select which poem they will illustrate. Give students the appropriate poems.
- Give each student a piece of paper, tin foil, permanent markers (various colors to share) and piece of textured fabric.
- Glue poem on top of paper.
- Using Permanent markers have students draw main illustration on foil (crocodile or butterfly). Place fabric under foil and using permanent markers color image. Make sure to press hard so that the fabric’s texture is displayed on the foil.
Note: The tin foil is very delicate. Please be careful while cutting and coloring. Each student will need a piece about 4-5 inches in width.
- Carefully cut image out of foil and glue onto paper.
- Add additional details with crayons or markers. Traditional markers will not stick to the tin foil. They can be used on paper, but do not use them on foil.
Please replace all materials, especially the book, inside the bucket. The textured fabric will be reused by other classes. Third and Fourth grade classes are both doing this project. If the book is not in your bucket, please check the other grade’s bucket.