Teaching Kids Art Through Picture Books
Literature based art ideas for you and your family
Create a cat collage
While I like cats and was very excited about this month’s theme, I actually don’t own one and never will. Both my husband and I are allergic to cats so our eyes and noses quickly alert us when one is in a closed room. However, I enjoy reading about them and drawing them. This week we will create a cute cat collage.
The first cat Mike and I found on our trip to Italy was sitting outside (thankfully!) on our balcony in the town of Assisi. It was a beautiful gray and white striped tabby cat with green eyes. Tabby is a kind of cat with distinctive stripes on its forehead, body, and tail.Â
Another cat can be found in a tapestry in the Vatican. I don't remember seeing this tapestry, but I probably walked past it! It was woven between 1524 and 1531. The artist chose to put a cat and dog at the feet of the table in the story of Jesus at Emmaus.
This month it's been all about cat art--how to draw a cat, how to use that drawing to create a dot cat art piece, and today we’ll do one of my fav...
How to Make a Cat out of Dots
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Last week I shared my quest to find cats in Italy. Here’s a quick photo of a pretty white cat we found in Venice. Notice how her white fur shows up. If she were in front of a dark or colored background, she’d show up even more!Â
Today we will make another cat art project based on the wonderful book, They all saw a Cat by Brendan Wenzel. If you haven’t picked up a copy yet, you can look it up on YouTube to see the pictures. It’s a great book not only for the illustrations, which are so varied from so many perspectives, but also for its ability to springboard connections across the curriculum to science. If you are doing any kind of animal study, for example, you can use this book to talk about the way different species see the world. If you are talking about the human body, you can use this book to talk about the way our eyes work. If you want to add artist appreciation, you can link this project with a study of contemporary Japanese artist Yayoi Kusami, who is famous for... |
