Eric Carle-Inspired Insect Collages - illustrator Eric Carle - Brief Article

Arts & Activities, Oct, 2000 by Eileen Palamountain, Kim Turner

This lesson allows us to connect art with language arts and science in a very meaningful Students dearly love the wonderfully written and illustrated picture books by Eric Carle. The Very Hungry Caterpillar and The Grouchy Ladybug are two favorites that come to my mind.

Here, Carle's illustrations are used as inspiration to create collage insects. We look at photos; we discuss the colors, shapes, lines and textures we see in and on the bodies of insects; we count body parts, legs, antennae, and use appropriate "bug vocabulary" to get inspired to create.

Our first step is to design the paper to be used as the collage material. We make finger paintings using a variety of colors. Students are told that these paintings will be shared and used by all in the creation of the collages. They are encouraged to create visual textures by moving their fingers through the paint to make unusual patterns. Once settled on a texture, the paintings are moved to dry.

The following art period, students review the bug information and discuss how they will begin cutting shapes out of the paper they have designed. Students will glue their shapes to an 18" x 24" sheet of white drawing paper, so we encourage them to cut large. We ask them to cut everything first, arrange, then glue into place after a satisfying composition is created.

The final collage insect can be cut out of the sheet of paper (leave about 1/4-inch of white border) and mounted on a sheet of colored construction paper, or you may choose to mount the bug on a leaf of its own on a "garden" bulletin board scene. However you choose to display this, you will be totally satisfied with the work!

Eileen Palamountain and Kim Turner teach at William Fox Elementary, Richmond, Va.