Eric Carle Inspired Fish

Here are some fish we made from painting paper in different colors and then cutting it up.  Inspired by Eric Carle.

We used a bunch of different instruments to color sheets of paper.  Then I cut them into scales.

Children picked a color to stamp a head. After it dried I cut of the body.

Then the children collage on the scales.  I showed them pictures of actual fish scales and how they overlapped. But didn't push that concept, and let them put them on however they wanted.

Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me

This craft is based upon the book Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me by Eric Carle.  We began by reading the book, a lot!  We re-read at least once every day that we did this craft.  It was a great conversation starter about waning and waxing moons, and we even went into solar systems when one child asked me if the moon was bigger than the sun.  We also touched on collage a little and how Eric Carle's pictures are all done using collage and paper.  In this craft we only used collage for the moons, which the kids did collaboratively.

We started by painting the sheet of paper.  I gave them both green sparkly paint and blue sparkly paint and the just combined them and smeared them around as much as they wanted.  I really like how the brush stokes added some twirls and lines!

We then collaged a piece of paper with white tissue paper and a grey paper.  Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of that process.  When it was dry I cut out the circles.  The children then glued down the moon, stars, and ladder, which was small sized Popsicle sticks.

I took pictures of the children from a ladder and added them on.