Book List: Art Inspiration!

Hi All!

As there becomes less time and support for arts in the classroom, I try to make each activity as multi-purposeful as possible, while still maintaining a high quality of instruction. Read alouds have consistently been a vehicle for that sort of cross-cutting integration, especially when it comes to the visual arts. Giving students an opportunity to express their ideas visual, to experiment and make a mess, to explore and create and discover will always be worth it, so I encourage you to consider using these texts (and many more!) to combine arts into your literacy instruction!

In this art inspiration list, I have compiled my favorite books and shared some ideas for how to use the books as a starting point for an in-class art project. I'd love to see your examples, hear your ideas, and expand this list to include even more ideas!

Click on the book covers to order the book on Amazon, and please let me know if this has been helpful in the comments below!

Eric Carle Collage Illustration

Inspiration text:

“Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See”

“Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear”

“The Very Busy Spider”

“The Very Hungry Caterpillar”

Old magazines, newspapers, and junk mail flyers become art materials when you make collages, which promotes both creativity and environmental responsibility. Sometimes I will have students recreate a page or character from one of Carle’s books as an introduction to collaging, but just as often I will let them just go for it! Students can make a form with their collage, or they can fill the whole page. Animals, people, backgrounds, settings, patterns, gradients- collage is one of the most open-ended projects I do in my classroom, so it is a great beginning-of-the-year idea.

Character puppets

Inspiration text:

“Elephant and Piggie”, Mo Willems

“Pigeon”, Mo Willems

“Pete the Cat”, James Dean

“Three Billy Goats Gruff”, Paul Galdone

"Giraffes Can't Dance", Giles Andreae

"The Rainbow Fish", Marcus Pfister

One year for Literacy Night, I had my students make paper bag puppets of their favorite book character. They. Loved. It. Since then, I have evolved the project to include puppets on Popsicle sticks, as well as bags. I generally provide some templates for the most popular characters, but after we have done some directed drawing exercises, students are able to draw their own characters with only a little help. Students can make puppets to take home, or to keep in the classroom puppet theater area for all to use.

Expressing Identity and Feelings

“One”, Kathryn Otoshi

Never have I seen such simplicity in illustration convey this multitude of feelings, but Otoshi’s story about friendship and bullies hits the nail on the head every time I read it. Regardless of age group, this story has all the right moments that capture children’s experience as they navigate peer relationships, and provide enough problem solving solutions to spark a post-reading conversation afterwards. Using watercolors, students can explore intensity of color, as well as the idea of movement as they manipulate shape forms.

“My Many Colored Days”, Dr. Seuss

In a distinctly different style than the rest of his books, Dr. Seuss’s “Many Colored Days” connect feelings and colors, exploring how varied we can all feel throughout a single day. I like to read this story, and then have students make their own chart of colors and corresponding feelings (because red won’t hold the same feeling for each person). Students can make their own color wheel of feelings, make a communal chart for the classroom, or focus on one color or feeling to explore. I like to have students use blendable materials for this project, primarily watercolors and pastels, to encourage an exploration of hues.

“The Colors of Us”, Karen Katz

Pizza crust, cinnamon toast, chocolate… these delicious hues make up Lena’s neighborhood and celebrate the beauty of every skin color. I have recently begun to use this book to help students create self-portraits in which they describe their “inside” and “outside” selves, using examples from the book to convey both personality and physical features. We use paint to mix a color that best matches our skin, then use pastels to add our facial features. Like the book, we talk about how we look and seem on the outside, but we also explore how we feel about ourselves on the inside. This book is a great place to start having many productive conversations about race, skin color, and traits.

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