Taylor Glenn

Eric Carle Lesson Plan

Grade
Kindergarten
Summary
This specific lesson will be one within an author study unit I will be doing with
my kindergarteners; we will be conducting our author study on Eric Carle. The study
will include exploring several of his books, promoting discussions about the
similarities and differences we notice, and experiencing what it is like to create
illustrations for our own class book in a similar way to Eric Carle.
We will be creating a class book that will include a variety of favorites of
everyone in our classroom, such as favorite foods, favorite sports, and favorite things.
We will focus on the writing portion first, and then we will take a couple days to work
on our illustrations. The illustrations will be inspired by Eric Carles techniques that
we will take time to research. Once the illustrations are complete, we will work to
publish our class book and put it in the class library.
Big Idea
Messy + Creativity > Rigid + Precise
I have learned so much about letting loose and getting messy throughout this
semester, and knowing what I was able to gain from that experience, I want to pass
that on to my students. At such a young age, their minds our ready to be molded in
terms of what everything means. With that being said, I dont want them to start
thinking that art doesnt have to be rigid and perfect and precise to be considered art.
I want them to know its alright let messiness and creativity shine while creating art,
and I think this lesson will provide them with this experience as they also dive into
writing about their favorite things.
Essential Questions
How does collaboration enhance the process the students go through when
creating?
How can we problem solve through challenging art-making experiences?
How do artists (the students) work through the process of deciding what to
create and how they are going to create it?
How can making connections to our peers enhance our learning and
understanding?
Objective/Standard
Visual Arts
Creating

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Eric Carle Lesson Plan
Anchor Standard 1: Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work.
VA:Cr1.1.Ka: Engage in exploration and imaginative play with
materials.
My students will have ample time to explore the various
materials and techniques Eric Carle uses as they are creating
their illustrations.
Anchor Standard 2: Organize and develop artistic ideas and work.
VA:Cr2.1.Ka: Through experimentation, build skills in various
media and approaches to artmaking.
My students will have the opportunity to experiment with the
way they want to create their illustrations. They will be
inspired by the way Eric Carle creates his illustrations, but they
will also have the chance to figure out what works best for
them.
Anchor Standard 3: Refine and complete artistic work.
VA:Cr3.1.Ka: Explain the process of making art while creating.
Throughout the time my students are working in their
workshop time, I will walk around and ask questions about
their work and their process, what they intend to do next, etc.
in order to deepen their learning and understanding of what we
are doing.
Connecting
Anchor Standard 10: Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal
experiences to make art.
VA:Cn10.1.Ka: Create art that tells a story about a life experience.
Our class book is all about the students favorite things; they
will have the chance to create illustrations about one of their
favorite things.
English Language Arts
Text Types and Purposes:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.K.1
: Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and
writing to compose opinion pieces in which they tell a reader the topic or
the name of the book they are writing about and state an opinion or
preference about the topic or book (e.g.,
My favorite book is...
).
Students will be working toward creating a class book to inform their
readers about some of the class favorite things.
Research to Build and Present Knowledge:

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Eric Carle Lesson Plan
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.K.7
: Participate in shared research and writing
projects (e.g., explore a number of books by a favorite author and express
opinions about them).
We will be working together to research Eric Carle during our author
study, and will also be working collaboratively to create a class book
that includes writing and illustrations from each student.
Time
I intend for the author study to last anywhere between 1-2 weeks depending on
where the students take the study. I am planning to be somewhat flexible so that I can
accommodate my lessons to be geared toward what the students are interested in and
what kinds of questions they develop throughout our study.
For this particular lesson, I imagine it will take three days; the first day will
focus on researching the technique Eric Carle uses to create his illustrations and the
students will have time to brainstorm what they will need to create the next day. I will
encourage them to think about things such as what colors they need to illustrate their
favorite thing and whether or not they want to include a bold background. The second
day will be a time for the students to actually create. We will have a studio day during
our writers workshop time in which the students will use paints and other materials
to create the colored pieces of paper they will need to illustrate their favorite thing.
We will wait for these to dry overnight, and the final day will include cutting out any
shapes we need for our illustration and then securing those shapes to the piece of
paper for our class book.
Materials/Attached Documents
White tissue paper
Newspaper
Acrylic paints
Water
Water dropper
Paint trays
Paint brushes
Sponges
Roller sponges
Vocabulary
Layer
Stroke
Technique

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Eric Carle Lesson Plan
Texture
Prior Knowledge and Experiences
I plan to have watercolor paints in my art center for the students to work with if
they choose during our Discovery Time (center time) throughout the year. Because of
that, I would have planned some sort of mini lesson to demonstrate the proper way to
use the watercolors for those of my students that may not have had the opportunity to
use them before. With that being said, I believe all of my students will have had the
chance to work with watercolors before. Even though we will be working with acrylic
paints for this lesson and not watercolors, I think the students will be able to draw
from their experiences with the watercolors when working with the paint materials
for this lesson.
Procedures
Day #1
1. We will have already been talking about Eric Carle because we will have been
reading several of his books as part of our author study unit
2. I will pull up the slideshow and talk to my students about how we are going to
look specifically at some of Eric Carles illustrations and see what we notice
3. As we go through each picture, I will ask the students about some of the things
they notice about each picture
4. Once we have gotten through all of the pictures, I will start a discussion about
the comparisons we noticed between each of the pictures
5. Once we compile a list of qualities and characteristics of Eric Carles
illustrations, we will look into the technique he uses
6. I will pull up the photo slideshow on Eric Carles website that goes over the
technique he uses to create his illustrations
7. We will then talk about the technique and work through any sort of
troubleshooting scenario the students are worried about
8. We will then begin to brainstorm for the illustrations we will create for our class
book the following day
9. I will encourage students to think about the following:
How many colors will be in my illustration?
Which colors will I need to create?
How will I cut the pieces out to form my illustration?
Day #2
1. This day will be our main studio day during writers workshop to paint

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Eric Carle Lesson Plan
2. I will pull up the photo slideshow we went over the day prior that went over
Eric Carles technique
3. We will go over what it will look like as we are preparing our paints and what
the students should do once they get their materials
They will squeeze their paints onto their trays and use the water dropper
to put water on the paint and mix it together
Then they will start painting their tissue paper
4. I will provide all of the students with tissue paper and newspaper based on how
many colored sheets they will need to make and they will put their names on
them so that they can later be identified
5. Each person at the table group will be responsible for gathering a specific
material to bring back to the group
Paints
Paint trays + paint brushes
Water cups + water dropper
Sponges + sponge rollers
6. I will put music on in the background and tell my students that they have the
entire time to work on painting their tissue paper
7. I will walk around the room during their work time to help as needed
Day #3
1. This day will be focused on cutting out the pieces we need to construct our
illustrations
2. Each student will get their dried pieces of paper
3. Once they are ready, they will start cutting out the pieces to glue onto a larger
piece of paper
4. Once all of the pieces are secured, we will allow them to dry so we can put the
book together
5. As part of the assessment process, students will create video diary entries to
reflect on the art-making process.
6. I will encourage them to think about the following:
How did I think of what to create?
How did I go about making it?
What does the illustration mean to me?
How does this illustration show others something about me?
7. After creating the video entries, the students will share their videos with their
table groups in order to make connections to their peers.
This will give the students a chance to reflect on everyone elses process
in addition to their own.

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Eric Carle Lesson Plan
Accommodations
I intend for this lesson to be somewhat collaborative, which means I would be
more than happy if the students talk to each other while they are creating, or help
each other out if necessary. If any of my students are having struggles with the
painting process, I will encourage them to ask their tablemates as I intend to foster
collaborative environment in my classroom. By no means will I continue to let them
struggle if they are struggling too much to be successful though. I have always been a
fan of students encouraging each other and learning from each other, and I think this
would be a wonderful opportunity to see that become reality as all of the students are
learning together.
Follow Up/Assessment
I have zero desire to strictly assess the artwork my students create; instead I
want to assess the process they went through to get to the finish line. In order to
make this happen, I will have my students create a digital diary entry on an iPad. This
entry would serve as an opportunity for the students to reflect on the process they
went through to create their piece of the class book. I would encourage them to share
how they felt throughout the writing and illustration process so that I can gain a good
grasp on what they took away from the lesson, and possibly tweak some things to
make it more successful the next time.
In order to give students time to also connect to their peers, we will have a time
to share their video entry either with one partner or with their entire table group so
that they can discuss
what
their favorite is and
why
. Im hoping this will help deepen
the students understanding of the entire lesson as they are able to hear from their
peers.

Taylor Glenn
Eric Carle Lesson Plan
Exemplar

Taylor Glenn
Eric Carle Lesson Plan
Resources
Carle, E. (1996).
The art of Eric Carle
. New York: Philomel Books.
Eric Carles Tips on How to Work with Wet Tissue Papers. (n.d.). Retrieved December
6, 2015, from
http://www.eric-carle.com/tissuepaperhowto.htm
l
How I paint my tissue papers. (n.d.). Retrieved December 6, 2015, from
http://www.eric-carle.com/slideshow_paint.html