Sunday, July 7, 2013

Swimmy


 A one-hour adventure with the beloved Swimmy by Leo Lionni



The preschool and elementary age fish in our school listened eagerly to Swimmy. After the reading, we chose white construction paper from our paper tray and brushed cool-hued watercolors lightly over the entire paper. We had our sights set on a mixed-media collage we found highlighted in 25 Terrific Art ProjectsBased on Favorite Picture Books by Karen Backus, Linda Evans and Mary Thompson.

As we created we strayed from the collage instructions in the book, adding our creativity with twisted tissue paper, sponge- painted seahorses, and torn paper rocks.  The results were amazing! 

My favorite moment of the adventure was the six-year-old's reaction to the fishes failure to cooperate. She sighed, "How sad!" What a character lesson!

Check out Swimmy by Leo Lionni for a powerful example of the importance of working together.

2 comments:

  1. It really was a fun afternoon. By allowing the children to go outside the ideas in the book, come up with their own ideas, they gained creative confidence. Eric Carle is a master at collage. Great mentor in this area.
    Cheryl

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