Book Gardens

Guest Post by Rashin Kheiriyeh

“Nestled in the branches of a tree,

Arlo opened his book and breathed in.

“Beginnings were always the best part.

They smelled as if anything were possible.”

I illustrated The Book Tree, written by Paul Czajak – a wonderful story about a boy who sits on the branches of a tree to read. When one of his books falls on the Mayor’s head, the Mayor decides to tear up every book in town – with disastrous consequences for teachers and their students, chefs and their restaurants, actors and their theatres and of course, libraries.

But then there was a miracle: “a sprout springing from where the page had been buried. It began to open its leaves. It reached for Arlo’s words, begging for more.” Pretty soon, Arlo was imagining and writing stories about giants and swans and fire-breathing beasts.

“People grew hungry for reading again. Some wrote their own stories and became book gardeners themselves.”

Even the Mayor finally shared the wonder of books.

My illustrations feature oil paint, ink and collages. I used natural materials to bring  depth and contrast to my drawings, like using real feathers, pieces of wood, fabrics and metals to make the collages more tangible.

People of the town have different skin tones with blue hair or mustaches. They look funny and whimsical.  The book tree itself is been printed with golden ink to give it a magical shine. The books that actually grow on the tree branches are in different languages.

The Book Tree can inspire student writing and even turn a whole school into book gardeners – limited only by your imagination.

Here are a few ideas to get started:

1 –  Have students draw a book tree full of their favorite books.

2 –  The teacher can draw a tree and each student draw or attach his/her favorite book to it.

3 – Draw the Mayor and Arlo as friends, reading a book together – or have students write a paragraph about what books the Mayor and Arlo enjoyed reading together. Perhaps they could even write a story together.

4 – Look at the illustrations in the book and find places where materials other than paint and paper have been used.  Make your own collage with lots of different materials.

The motto of publisher Barefoot Books is to “step inside a story.”  What stories would your students like to step inside?  The Book Tree celebrates the themes Barefoot Books seeks to highlight: “encourage independence of spirit, enthusiasm for learning and respect for the world’s diversity.”

 www.rashinart.com

Pillows, Dogs, and Writing Fun

by Laura Gehl

My Pillow Keeps Moving, written by Laura Gehl and illustrated by Christopher Weyant, is the story of a lonely man who tries to buy a pillow and accidentally buys a dog—who becomes his new best friend.

After you read My Pillow Keeps Moving out loud to your students, you can use the story as a fun writing prompt. Try these suggestions for getting your students writing:

1) In this story, a man walks into a pillow store and accidentally buys a dog. Write your own story using this formula:

? walks into a store to buy ? and accidentally buys ?

Replace the first question mark with a character, the second question mark with an item you might buy in a store, and the third question mark with an animal.

2) The man in the story starts out with no pets and ends up with two. Do you have a pet? Do you wish you had a pet? What pet would you like to have, and why? You can even write about an imaginary creature you would love to have as a pet, like a unicorn or a dragon!

3) This book has a lot of pages without text, where the story is told only through pictures. Choose one of those pages and imagine that you need to describe what is happening to someone who cannot see the illustration. Use words to tell that part of the story.

www.lauragehl.com

Finding Your Own Forest

by Karen Leggett Abouraya

This is the season to take a sketchpad or journal outside, walk a trail or just lie in the grass. Watching. Writing. Drawing.

That’s what Lulu Delacre did before writing ¡Olinguato De la A al la Z! Descubriendo el bosque nublado (Unveiling the Cloud Forest) . She traveled high up in the Andes Mountains of Ecuador to find the elusive little mammal, the olinguito. Lulu’s book was inspired by a Washington Post article about the discovery of the olinguito . Her journey to the cloud forest of Ecuador resulted in a fascinating, elegant bilingual book filled with a whole alphabet of wildlife – and many ideas to spark summer writing and drawing.

1.    Look at a newspaper and find an article that inspires you to write a short story or a poem. Illustrate your story.

2.    During your own walk outside, try to find something that begins with each letter of the alphabet. Take the first five words on your list and write a story using all the words. It might be a very silly story!

3.    If you are in a place where you can pick up leaves or twigs from the ground, bring some back to use in your illustrations. Lulu used real leaves to get the texture just right for the background in these pictures (now on display at Strathmore Mansion in Rockville, Maryland.

4.     Find the zoologist hiding on every page of ¡Olinguito!  Go to the library or use the Internet to find other people who work with animals. Choose one and write a paragraph about what that person does.  Maybe you can even interview someone who works in your community.

Need more ideas?  Here’s the Lee and Low Teacher’s Guide for ¡Olinguito!

You never know where an outdoor adventure could lead on paper and in your heart.  Lulu says she “came back from my trip amazed at the interconnectedness among all the life-forms in the cloud forest, and with a deep respect for what these rich places mean to humans and the earth.”

http://childrensbookguild.org/karen-leggett-abouraya

THE WHOLE BOOK APPROACH

by Joan Waites

In the newly released book, Reading Picture Books With Children, by Megan Dowd Lambert, (Charlesbridge 2015), Lambert introduces The Whole Book Approach-an alternative to traditional story time.

Instead of reading books TO children, she emphasizes using the picture book as a visual art form, engaging children to participate in what they see and hear.

The chapters are broken down into the different parts of a picture book that make up the whole. The author gives examples of questions to ask students that engage them into looking beyond the surface of what they see. Some of the chapters include information on trim size and orientation, jackets and covers, endpapers, front matter, typography, page design, as well as other artistic and design choices that were made to compliment the story. These design elements might not be seen or realized at first glance, and coaxes the reader to explore them further.

The whole book approach can be used by parents, caregivers, teachers, librarians and even authors and illustrators when doing school presentations.

As the book cover says, “shake up story time and get kids talking about what they see.”

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to all!

 www.joanwaites.com

Back to School with BALLOONS Lit. Journal

by Jacqueline Jules

In August, I was very pleased to see my poems, “The Math Beast” and “Thunder” featured in Issue 2 of a new online publication called BALLOONS Lit. Journal.

After reading the journal in its entirety, I would like to recommend this rich resource to teachers and young readers everywhere. BALLOONS Lit. Journal features work from both established and young writers from all around the world. It also includes work appropriate for a wide age range of students.

The inclusion of work by young people makes this a wonderful model for young writers. Share the poem, “Rain,”by ten-year-old Sage as an excellent example of using descriptive details and then ask students to write their own weather poems.

Two fiction stories in this issue are told from the viewpoint of inanimate objects. “Knight Errant” is a clever chess story set in medieval times with a twist ending.

“Carnival Balloons” follows the worried thoughts of a balloon watching over a lost child.

Both of these stories could be used as models for writing from an object’s viewpoint, particularly a toy or game.

The art in Balloons Lit. Journal is utterly delightful. “The Earth—A Miracle” by Hyonju (Karen) Ahn could inspire writing about the earth, the solar system, and/or ecology.

Ahn’s “City Lights” could make a terrific writing prompt and discussion for sensory details. Project the art on a smart board screen and brainstorm descriptive words for the busy sights and sounds depicted. Ask your students to describe a visit to the city or write a story about someone who is experiencing New York City for the first time.  

Attractively designed and available for free to educators, BALLOONS Lit. Journal, should be on your back-to-school list for writing workshop ideas. Check it out at 

http://www.balloons-lit-journal.com/issue-2.html

 www.jacquelinejules.com

SUSAN L. ROTH: A SPECIAL COLLABORATION IN MISSOURI

Susan L. Roth, the award winning author and illustrator of 45 books including Hands Around the Library, Parrots Over Puerto Rico, and The Mangrove Tree was recently a part of an amazing writing program in Blue Springs, Missouri. In a guest blog, she shares her experiences at Pencil Tips Writing Workshop.  

A summer school writing program involving 900 students was created and initiated by the Deputy Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction, for the entire Blue Springs R-IV School District (Dr. Annette Seago), later working together with Liz Nealon, co-creator and publisher of StarWalk Kids Media, the E-publisher of many of my books.

The participating children, from grades K-8, were required to write a non-fiction work for an all-program competition. Separate winners were to be chosen respectively, one from each of these three separate age groups: kindergarten-2^nd grade, 3rd-5th, and 6th-8th.

All children were then exposed extensively to age-appropriate non-fiction books, and especially, after I had agreed to participate, to ones I had written and/or illustrated. My part in this project was to help to choose the final winner in the 3^rd-5^th category, and then to illustrate the winner’s book for eventual e-publication.

The writing teachers amazingly sifted through every single one of the 900 entries. They selected five first cut winners for me (and my publisher) to read. Our job was to choose the one that would be best for me to illustrate and for the publisher to publish. 

The plan: to make a REAL BOOK happen.

All five selections were surprisingly excellent, each diverse in subject and style, and each interesting. With difficulty, we finally chose PLANTS AND ANIMALS, written by a 9-year-old named Violetta. This one, we agreed, was perfect for the project. The publisher notified the program coordinators and they, our winner, Violetta, who was ecstatic.

Warning: This is not, everyone admits, a project designed for equal opportunities for each of the 900 children. But it was so successful with its one-to-one design, that I, as well as the others, feel we need to take advantage of the happening and work to find a way to broaden the wonderful experience.

In the attractive library at Daniel Young Elementary School in Blue Springs, Missouri, Violetta and I sat at one of the several library tables for about four hours without getting up! Two writing teachers were also in attendance. Together Violetta and I explored the way to illustrate a non-fiction text, one step at a time.

Together we:

1-read and re-read the text;

2-we divided the text into pages;

3-we made a quick storyboard;

4-we corrected the storyboard;

5-we made a tiny dummy to make sure that our pagination was correct (it wasn’t, we corrected it);

6-we made a small, but precisely proportional-to-the-book-size dummy, and numbered its pages. We cut the text into pieces, and taped each piece to its proper page;

7-we discussed possible images and sketched several possibilities on separate papers;

8-we sketched our ideas directly into the real dummy. Sometimes we disagreed. We talked out our different approaches until we reached agreement. Each of us did this without feeling that one of us was ever dominating the project.

And at that point this amazing 9-year-old child, who had been sitting still for almost four straight hours with a stranger she just met, jumped up and confessed that she HAD to run a little. And she flew from one end of the library to the other again and again until she was out of breath. Then she flopped back down in her chair, renewed.

We went back to work for a bit after that, refining the drawings, but mostly just admiring what we had accomplished together, and then school was dismissed and Violetta was out the door.

And I was swept away to my hotel where I was to create the first page of art to present at the ceremonies on Wednesday.

I must admit that before I went to work with Violetta my feelings about this project were a little mixed. Certainly it is not revolutionary to feel that the children themselves should have created their own illustrations for their own books. Actually, I raised my concerns as soon as I arrived at Daniel Young School. But, I was told, this was not our project this time, even though it might be, another time. THIS summer program in Blue Springs R-14 School District was for WRITING.

And all the children DID write. Their writing efforts were taken very seriously by the official mentors. The participants were individually named and each was individually awarded with a special writing medal and a special certificate at the ceremony on Wednesday. All their writings were exhibited on tables set out in the hallways of the school. Most of the parents came to the ceremony so that there was a good audience for all.

I thought all of this was wonderful. But none of this was my takeaway.

The extraordinary thing that happened was the adult to adult collaboration, one to one, between Violetta and myself as we were sitting together quietly for all those adult hours in the library. It was a genuine collaboration, and our 62 year age difference (who’s counting and none of your business, besides) did not enter into the equation.

Could the other 899 kids ever have a similar experience? Would I, ever in a million years, be capable of repeating this lovely interval another 899 times? NO! is the quick and true answer.

But, the two dedicated and gifted writing teachers who silently witnessed this amazing, lovely teaching event, and I, are all determined to figure out a way to do this (or maybe at least something LIKE this) for more children, more often.

We are starting with a proposed Skype session, scheduled for July, to coincide with an annual writing teachers symposium also to be held in Blue Springs, Missouri.

My most important job is going to be to try to analyze the magic that took place. I hope to be able to transmit the taste of the moment. Our collective goal is to figure out a way that eventually the children themselves will be able to reproduce the one on one exchange, with each participant wearing his own hat: that would be the writer, writing, and the illustrator, illustrating, but with each, LISTENING, and each THINKING, and each COLLABORATING, each, working towards their mutual common goal, TOGETHER.

I suppose this is what is happening, internally, when one is both the writer and the illustrator as I usually am, but somehow, with the two individuals working together the process becomes all the more exciting.

The amazing, happy alliance, the give and take, the discussion and the execution by the two different people, TOGETHER, was all so very special. I hope that this report can convey a little of our shared excitement, and that perhaps it can inspire future experiments, with intense involvement, one on one, but completely together.

As for our own experiment, I’m sure that our day was one that Violetta will hold dear forever. Surely I will as well.

 Susan L. Roth

P. S. I am presently working on completing the rest of the art for Violetta’s book. It will be published as soon as I finish, by StarWalk Kids Media. Please look for it! Fan mail cheerfully accepted.

HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON

by Joan Waites

Most of us are familiar with the classic children’s book Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson, first published in 1955. It’s a book I often checked out of the library as a child, and then later read to my own children. Now the book with its worn dust jacket sits upon a shelf in my art teaching studio. I have read the book many times to my young students, using it as an introduction to a lesson on line and shape.

In the story, using just one purple crayon, Harold draws himself a magical imaginary adventure. There are no limits, parents or rules for Harold to obey; his imagination and one purple crayon can take him anywhere.

Using the illustrations in the book, have students identify straight lines, zig-zag lines, curvy lines, wavy lines etc. Next, ask students to identify the basic geometric shapes that make up some of the drawings.

For an art and writing activity, make up individual blank books using any size white paper stapled or glued at the fold. Have each child draw themselves (using a purple crayon or marker) into their own imaginary story that begins and ends at their bedroom window. Ask older students to write text to accompany the illustrations, have younger students explain their drawings to the class.

Where will a purple crayon and their imagination take them?

www.joanwaites.com

Printmaking with Picture Books

by Joan Waites

With snow, sleet and rain still in the forecast, it’s sometimes hard to imagine that spring will ever arrive. One way to brighten up the classroom is to work on some springtime art and writing activities with your students, even though it may be a month or more till we see some green.

A project that is always big hit with my students (and one that produces successful results), is printmaking. When talking about and explaining how different types of prints are made, I will often use one or more picture books where the illustrations were created with prints (as opposed to painting, drawing, or digital art) to show as examples.

The artwork created by Caldecott winning artist Mary Azarian, is a great way to introduce students to the art of printmaking. In her one of many books, A Gardener’s Alphabet, Mary highlights her own garden filled with beautiful flowers. The illustrations are created with woodblock prints, which would be too hazardous a technique for little hands.  For making prints in the classroom, I use the simpler and safer technique below. Using this technique, have children illustrate some flowers in a vase or a garden scene as depicted in the picture book. Simpler lines and shapes produce better results as opposed to a lot of detail. Students could also write a short paragraph about their own garden, one in their community, or one they have visited. Ask them to describe the garden using details like smells, colors, and textures.

Making a Styrofoam Print

*Using inexpensive Styrofoam printing plates (purchased from art supply stores), or carefully washed, recycled meatpacking trays, have students draw with a pencil directly on to the plate, using firm pressure.

*Go over lines on the plate one more time, making sure the lines indented are thick and deep (without going all the way through the plate).

*Roll out some water-soluble printing ink or some heavy body acrylic paint with a brayer. If a brayer is not available, brush on paint with an inexpensive foam brush. Be careful to not fill the lines up with paint. If this happens, simply swipe out the excess paint from the lines with a pencil.

*Place a sheet of printing or other smooth paper on top of the inked plate, and firmly rub your hands over the paper using some pressure.

* Pull off the paper to reveal the print! The plate can be rinsed with soap and water, dried, and used again with different or multiple colors.

www.joanwaites.com   

Teaching Art History with Picture Books

by Joan Waites

When teaching a lesson revolving around a famous artist in history, I begin by showing examples of the artist’s work, talk about their choice of media and subject matter, then read a short biography. In addition (and what really seems to capture the attention of the students) is reading a picture book that captures the art and personality of the artist in story.

Some wonderful books I’ve used and recommend are:

When Pigasso Met Mootisse 

by Nina Laden

A fictionalized story about the friendship between Picasso and Matisse.

Look! Look! Look!  

by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace

Three mice learn to look at art using shapes, colors, composition and more--a great introduction for students on what to look for in any painting.

My Name Is Georgia 

by Jeanette Winter

A biography of the artist Georgia O'Keefe.

Linnea In Monet's Garden 

by Cristina Bjork

A young girl visits Monet's Garden.

Seurat and La Grande Jatte: Connecting the Dot 

by Robert Burleigh 

Focuses on a single painting introducing the artist's life and work.

As a writing exercise, have children study one work of art by the artist featured in your lesson. Have children imagine themselves inside the painting, living in that world and write a short story about it. What do they see, smell and hear? Who or what is in the painting with them? What is happening around them or what is about to happen?  

Wishing everyone a wonderful start to the new school year!

www.joanwaites.com

PAINTED POEMS

by Joan Waites

A fun springtime activity to do with students, which combines both a writing and art component, is to work on “Painted Poems.” Using an original or published seasonal poem, students combine type, paint, and collage to illustrate the written word.

For example, using a spring-themed poem by fellow Pencil Tips author Mary Quattlebaum, a collage was created by printing out the words to “Yellow Crocus.”

                                                                YELLOW CROCUS

                                                                (from Winter Friends)

                                                                                Spry

                                                                             sprocket

                                                                              up from

                                                                               earth's

                                                                           dark pocket

                                                                           you spring,

                                                                                 one

                                                                                 slim

                                                                                sprig

                                                                             wheeling

                                                                             summer-

                                                                               bright

                                                                                under

                                                                                 pale

                                                                                 sun.

Illustration by Joan Waites

To make a Painted Poem:

1.     Have students write an original seasonal poem, or use a published one.

2.     Print the poem out several times on a heavier paper that works well with watercolor paint.

3.    Have students use various colors to paint over the words. When dry, go over the flat colors again with additional colors making stripes, swirls, dots, etc. Crayons, colored pencils, or makers can also be used to make interesting textures.

4.    Once the paint is dry, cut out shapes and paste on another piece of paper to assemble the collage.

5.     If desired, use the actual poem as one of the collage elements, as in the example shown.

Happy Spring!

www.joanwaites.com

WORKING THROUGH MISTAKES

 by Joan Waites

During class last week, one of my little art students was in tears because she made a mistake while working on a drawing exercise. She furiously scribbled over it, declaring that she wanted to throw it away. To make matters worse, she was sitting next to another student, who executed each drawing with ease. Though I gave her several pointers, assured her that this was just practice and encouraged her to not worry about it and just do the best she could, nothing eased her frustration.  Switching gears, I showed her how to turn those unintended marks into something else….a fish, a flower, and a beach ball. The tears dried up and she happily completed the rest of the exercise.

Learning to turn a “mistake” into something that works in a painting, drawing or other artistic endeavor can be a hard concept for young children to grasp. Even an older child, who has worked diligently on a piece and then has a paint spill, can be just as upset. Ink blobs, paint splatters, or having a classmate accidentally knock your beloved sculpture to the floor can happen daily in any art room. So how can you teach children to roll with mistakes instead of giving up?

A picture book I have found helpful in addressing this problem in the art classroom and beyond is: Beautiful Oops, by Barney Saltzburg, (Workman Publishing Company; September 23, 2010)

This book explains to children how a mistake--a ripped paper, a paint splatter, a smudge and more can be turned into an unexpected opportunity to make something beautiful.

A fun exercise to try with students that demonstrates this concept is the following:

Creating Imaginary Creatures

1.     Using any type of fluid water based paint, place a large wet “blob” in the middle of the page.

2.     Slowly turn the page upside down and left to right until you achieve an interesting shape.

3.     After the paint has dried, study the shape from all angles and pick an interesting view.

4.     Using a black marker or additional paint, turn your shape into an imaginary animal, monster or mythical creature. The results can be quite spectacular!

When a child makes a perceived mistake, first try to work with them to incorporate the “oops” into the art. Of course, as with all endeavors, sometimes you just have to start over. However, after working through a few mistakes and achieving positive results, students will likely be less frustrated and even proud when they come up with a solution to their “oops!”

 www.joanwaites.com