Serving Art Educators
and Students Since 1994
Hungry for Reading Book Illustration
Submitted by Bob Craig, Western Canadian artist
Art / Science / Health / Language Arts Integration
LESSON PLAN: HUNGRY FOR READING
OBJECTIVE:
To introduce students to the art of mixed media through the introduction of an illustrated story about overcoming personal adversity.
PREPARATION:
Photocopy enough booklets to hand out one copy to each student. Start collecting magazines, newspaper ads, and fliers. Make sure that you have Scissors
Lesson 1
1) Discuss the story
What is good nutrition? (Melvin ate paper) What would be the result of a diet consisting of paper alone? Englishmen were referred to as Limeys, because sailors at one time had to eat limes on sailing ships to prevent scurvy. What is scurvy?
What is a proper diet for cats or dogs? What are hair balls? If you have a family pet what is your responsibility for providing it with a proper diet? Look for advertisements for pet food. See if you can find pictures of pets or wild animals eating. How are pets used in advertising on television and magazines? What would you provide in the way of food for a pet mouse?
Do dogs, cats and mice have different personalities? Make up a short play involving a conversation between the three animals.
2) Assign for homework
Have the students search out examples of food pictures on labels, on canned groceries in their kitchen, on cardboard containers or in magazines or flyers.
Ask the students to bring a cardboard box to class for the next lesson. Have them search for a box the size of a shoe box or a chocolate box for a 3-dimensional collage decorating project.
Lesson 2
Preparation
Bring extra cardboard boxes, magazines, or flyers to provide materials for students who may not have completed the homework assignment. Provide Poster Board
Activities
Have the students collect pictures of food by cutting examples from magazines or any disposable printed source such as fliers. If the students have cameras they may make it a project to take pictures of people or animals eating. Have students cut out printed letters from advertisements. Have them use the letters like Scrabble tiles to make up food labels to be used in the manufacture of a food collage with a HUNGRY FOR READING theme.
Explore the kitchen cupboards for food words and pictures. Cut off labels from cans and cartons. Print new labels for products by using masking tape and a felt marking pen.
Save the labels for use in collage projects such as THE FOOD GROUPS or FAVORITE FOODS. Have the students create a 2-dimensional or a 3-dimensional exhibit for an exhibition titled HUNGRY FOR READING.
DISCUSSION:
Why is it important to read the list of ingredients on the reverse side of grocery packages? How much salt should we be eating? How much sugar should we be eating?
What is your favourite cartoon animal? What do you imagine it eats? What did dinosaurs eat? What is a herbivore? What is a carnivore? When are you a herbivore and when are you a carnivore? What is a vegetarian? Why do vegetarians eat tofu?
GENERAL TOPICS OF INTEREST BASED ON VIEWING BOB'S WEB SITE www.bobcraigcollage.ca
Once you have opened the website and viewed the art please click on TECHNIQUE to view a video of the construction of a collage.
Bob's gallery web site is also listed on the last page of MELVIN MARTINVILLE HERO OF CARTONVILLE. (See some images of the book below. Resources for this lesson are at the bottom of the page.)
Click on the images for full size
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Resources
Collage Journeys: A Practical Guide to Creating Personal Artwork
- This book is meant to give inspiration to the teacher on collage techniques. It is written at the high school and college level. The book guides you through the entire process of discovery, helping you understand how to create meaningful, personal artwork with techniques, exercises, and projects that explore the creative potential in collage journaling.
Creative Collage Techniques
- Collage is a fine art combination of paper and shape, color and texture, imagination and vision. This book can help you bring all of these together in one beautiful creation. Here you'll see magnificent collages by leading artists who show you - in step-by-step demonstrations - how to begin, how to design, how to apply collage techniques in exciting ways.
The Encyclopedia of Writing and Illustrating Children's Books
- This practical book is a step-by-step guide to becoming a successful graphic storyteller, showing how to create exciting plots and engaging characters that will delight young readers.
Writing with Pictures: How to Write and Illustrate Children's Books
- No one understands picture books better than Uri Shulevitz, and no one is more articulate about how they work. Most books about writing for children focus on young novels or on straightforward picture book stories. This book inspires you to think beyond those predictable formats and instead embrace the poetry of a good picture book.
Links
IAD's Cartooning Pages - This section on IAD includes submitted cartoons by various artists as well as cartoon lessons.
Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators - This is the gallery for children's books illustrators of this society.
