When the winter dark sets in, I like to to "twinkle up" our classroom with stars.
We read about the
darkest dark with Commander Chris Hadfield, learned how
Franklin the turtle turned on his nightlight (when no one was looking) because he was afraid of small dark places - and then we learned how to draw a star with Eric Carle.
Draw Me a Star is one of Eric Carle's lesser knows books.
Summary: "Draw me a star. And the artist drew a star. It was a good star. Draw me a sun, said the star. And the artist drew a sun." And on the artist draws, bringing the world to life picture by beautiful picture until he is spirited across the night sky by a star that shines on all he has made. In "Draw Me a Star," Eric Carle celebrates the imagination in all of us with a beguiling story about a young artist who creates a world of light and possibility. A remarkable, quintessentially simple book encompassing Creation, creativity, and the cycle of life within the eternal. -- "Kirkus Reviews," GoodReads
full disclosure -
Draw Me a Star is on a list of books contested and banned in schools and library; there are biblical themes (although, I would be surprised if my students picked up on it) and a Eric Carle style depiction of a naked man and woman. Not graphic, but enough to know it was a man and a woman. We have "know the names of body parts including private parts" on our curriculum - so it would not have posed a problem for us - but the copy of the book that I borrowed from the school library had already been censored!!
Back to the creating.
I wanted Eric Carle style art - painted paper collage -- and sparkle.
Painting on tin foil was the sparkle solution.
The kids used paint brushes to make random dots on their tin foil. Finger prints would have also worked, but I want not into that much hand washing. Sometimes a paintbrush can save sanity.
When the painted tin foil was dry, I cut it into strips.
The kids each chose a star, pre-cut and made of poster board. (If we had a longer timeline, or the children were older, they would have drawn and cut out their own stars).
The children cut their tinfoil strips into little pieces, and glued them onto their star.
When the glue was dry, I cut off the excess tin foil.
The last step was to add some beads before hanging them up. (I could not find the string that I bought to hang up the stars, so we improvised and used unbent paper clips. Worked like a charm.)
Eric Carle inspired stars - bringing colour, sparkle and the joy of creativity into our classroom.
related star activities
