Students make a book in the style of Eric Carle to learn or review color and shape awareness.
shape, geometry, bear, Carle, color, sight vocabulary, heart, oval, square, triangle, circle
Materials Needed[shopmaterials]Young students will need blank books prepared in advance; see Before the Lesson below.
Before the Lesson
Prior to the lesson, familiarize students with the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Eric Carle.
Before the lesson, you might ask parent volunteers or older students to create a 9- x 6-inch book for each student. Volunteers will
Depending on the ability level of students and/or time constraints, you might
Note: If the students are coloring, they should use crayons. Colored markers will bleed through pages.
Carefully describe the activity to students. Have students use extra shapes to create a collage to make a cover that has a nice look. Have students write their names where appropriate. (Volunteers already might have written the title on the cover along with a "By _____" line.)
Discuss shapes as students do each page; or discuss them when books are completed. For example, you might ask: What shape are we going to put on this page?, What do you call this shape?, What color is it?, or What can you tell me about this shape? (With that last question, you are looking for students to recognize that an octagon has 8 sides, a square has 4 equal sides, and so on.)
If you are using this activity to introduce shapes, you might have students work on the book over several days. Each day, they could add a new shape or two.
The last page of the book might have the text "All the shapes looking at me!" written on it, so students can illustrate it.
Students could make a picture with the different shapes for the back cover.
This is a nice project to laminate, so children can keep it for a long time. They should begin to recognize the sight words in the book and use this tangible, personal work to review them. Some children might be able to read the entire book to their parents.
It is always nice to include a "Letter to Parents" about this project. The book gives parents an opportunity to reinforce the concepts of color and shape. It also provides an opportunity for students to read. In this letter, I like you might give tips on questions their children might ask or suggest techniques they might use as they read the book to/with their child. For this letter, some of those questions might be Can you find a circle (or another shape) in this room?, Do you see any difference between a square and a rectangle?, Any similarities?, What letter does rectangle begin with?, "What sound does that letter make?, and so on.
Students will be able to describe each shape in their books and identify each shape and colors in isolation.
Susanne Shorday DiMarco, Abington Presbyterian Nursery School in Abington, PennsylvaniaEducation WorldÂ®