Hello all,
“Letter I is for Illustrators Week” was Inventive, Inspiring, Intense, and Incredible! Throughout the entire “Letter I is for Illustrators Week”, the students brought in some great letter I shares! Whether it was an Ice cream cone, an Igloo, Ironman, an Iguana or Insects, one thing was for sure – everything had to do with I! Read on below to learn about all the fun that was had and learning that took place.
The students spent both Monday and Tuesday morning working one on one with the teachers to complete their Letter I identification/fine motor activity sheets. The teachers were so Impressed with how easily the new students recognized the letter I and also how well the older students remembered all things “I” during their morning work! In the afternoon on Monday and Tuesday, the students created the ninth letter list of the year! Naturally, the letter I list was full of Insightful answers! As a whole group, the students took turns brainstorming and contributing words that begin with the letter I and also hunted around the classroom for letter I items!
How many I shares do you see?
Answer: Iguana, Insect cards, Ice cream, and Instruments!
After all that “I” investigation, the students sure were ready to learn about the theme of the week – Illustrators! Seeing that the students enjoy hearing and viewing dozens of stories each week while at school, the topic of author and illustrator is a frequent one at PPA. To begin the investigation, the teachers decided to ask the students to identify the difference between an author and an illustrator. It was determined that the author writes the words of the story and the illustrator creates the pictures in the book. Next, the teachers asked the students how the illustrator creates the pictures of the book. Does the illustrator use crayons? Does the illustrator use paint? Does the illustrator use markers? The students said, “YES!” to all three options and they were right! That is because illustrators can use WHATEVER they want to create their pictures! The teachers explained that the students would be learning all about three of the more common illustration styles throughout the week: Drawing, Painting and Collage! Keep reading below to see which one they learned about on each day!
On Wednesday, the students explored the illustration style of renowned childhood author/illustrators such as Eric Carle, Lois Ehlert and Leo Lionni. Eric Carle, most famously known for his classic tale, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, is featured below creating his lovable caterpillar character. Take a look at this video clip. Do you know what style of illustration Eric Carle is using here?
The style that Eric Carle is using is known as collage. The word collage means to create one piece of art from many pieces. As you saw in the video above, Eric Carle used many different pieces of paper to assemble his caterpillar. Isn’t it beautiful? 🙂 The students could hardly wait to create collages of their own. Here is how their collage investigation turned out!
On Thursday, the students explored a different illustrative style utilized by illustrators such as Jan Brett (author/illustrator of The Mitten and Gingerbread Baby) and Marcus Pfister (author/illustrator of The Rainbow Fish series). Take a look at this video clip below. Do you know what style of illustration Jan Brett is using here in the later part of this video?
The style that Jan Brett is using is known as watercolor. Isn’t it beautiful? 🙂 The students could hardly wait to create watercolor creations of their own. Just like Ms. Brett, the students began by drawing first – they used a white crayon to really make their illustrations pop! Here is how their watercolor investigation turned out!
After learning all about various illustrators throughout the entire week, the students were given the chance to illustrate their own class book! To do so, the students explored a different illustrative style utilized by almost all illustrators as the first step of illustration creation – pencil/ink drawing! Each child took turns creating an illustration of their choosing on a piece of a paper. Once all of the pages were complete, the teachers compiled them into a class book. The title of the book is, “Interesting Illustrations”. Here are some of the Incredible Illustrations they created!
Throughout the afternoons of “Letter I is for Illustrators Week”, the students participated in both music and Spanish class. They completed their investigation into Los Numeros (Numbers) and will now begin a new unit of study next week! They also had the chance to meet and observe several other famous author/illustrators at work during a technology presentation. Click below to meet another PPA favorite author/illustrator – David Shannon!
Also on Friday afternoon, the students were visited by a PPA Daddy who happens to be a professional chef. The students were so excited to learn that they would be wrapping up the week by making Greek holiday cookies from scratch! The Daddy surprised the PPA students by bringing in some seriously professional chef gear – an apron and chef hat for each student! Once the students were dressed appropriately, the baking fun began! Here are some highlights from this Incredible visit! A special PPA Thank You to this Daddy (and Mommy) featured below!
Wow! Talk about an Incredible Week! Well, that is all for “Letter I is for Illustrators Week”. As always, thank you for reading and have a fun and safe weekend!
-PPA
Theme for Next Week:
