Bring on December and dare I say winter! I adore all Lois Ehlert books, including Snowballs. Her art begs the reader to take a closer look. The children were curious to see, discover and discuss what objects were used to assemble the snow family in the story. We discussed collage, the technique Ehlert uses to create the images in her books. It's as a French word meaning glue. Simply put, collage is art made from various materials glued over a surface.
We recreated a wintry scene from the book of birch trees and a red cardinal. As a time saver, the trees were photocopied onto sheets of paper for the kids to cut into tree trunks. Using a bowl they traced a circle onto red paper and cut it out. They made a dot in the centre of the circle and cut only pie shapes. This was their challenge, to create the bird using triangular pieces. They did amazingly well. Once the birds were assembled, details were added with sharpies. Then it was time for snow! Out came the hole punchers. Snow fell for an hour straight, what fun!
