Eric Carle Author Study

Eric Carle- What an incredible author and illustrator. My students have loved reading his books. This was our first attempt at an author study. I really hoped my students would admire Eric Carle as much as I do. I will settle for them learning author and illustrator and enjoying his books. I think the best way for my students to learn is by doing. So this week we were authors and illustrators. Here are a few of my favorite things we did.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar
After reading the book, we talked about what "hungry" means. We brainstormed things we eat when we are hungry. I cut out seven green circles for each of my students. We used these circles as a graphic organizer to write in 7 foods we like. Seven foods for seven days of the week. We glued on a red circle for a head and black pipe cleaners for legs and antennae. I took this hilarious pictures of their faces with mouths wide open to stick on the red circle. I think we had more fun taking pictures than anything else. Then we used our caterpillar to help us write our own versions of the Hungry Caterpillar. I made a template for my students who are still working on letter formation and sentence writing.

The Very Grouchy Ladybug
Cute ladybug clocks to make before reading the story so students can practice time while reading the story.

I wish I could remember where I found the template. Leave a comment if you know or its yours so I can give you the credit!

Color number cards red and use Q-tips to add spots. 

The Very Busy Spider
This may be one of my most favorite things we have done all year. I was worried my students would have trouble with the building, but this was so fun! Painters tape in a doorway to build a spider web. We threw paper insects to see how well we had built our web. We also practiced "under" and "through" (social studies concept).

If you have older students, you can talk about animal adaptations and have teams build webs to see who can catch the most insects.

Kids as Illustrators-

We watched several youtube clips about Eric Carle and his illustrations. We used some of his techniques and some of our own to create a huge butterfly. 

I painted the outline of the butterfly. My students used corks to make spots of color on the butcher  paper. 

We also used bubble wrap and sponges.