Friday, March 4, 2011

Eric Carle--March Read-Along

I am so happy to be a part of the March Read Along sponsored by Helping Little Hands.

I chose the book A House for Hermit Crab, by Eric Carle.

Hermit crab is growing and he out grows his house!  He wanders around a bit and finds a brand new shell that is just the right size.  He spends the next year decorating his house with wonderful things that he finds on the ocean's floor, but when his home is just the way he wants it to be, he realizes that it is getting too small again!  He gives his lovely home to another smaller hermit crab, and goes looking for a new house.

This is a great story about friendship and moving on and making where you are, the best place to be!


Project:
I teach Kindergarten, and we just finished studying Eric Carle as an author and illustrator.  After we read, A House for Hermit Crab, I traced the hermit crab from the front cover of the book, and gave each of my students a copy.  I asked them to decorate a new house for him.  I had them look at the pictures in the book for ideas, and I set out pom poms, jewels, feathers, markers, and anything else that I could find for them to use.  Here are some new houses for Hermit Crab!



If you have an older child, you may want to encourage him to decorate Hermit Crab's shell, using Eric Carle's collage style.  (He uses tissue paper and paint to create his wonderful illustrations.)
Click here to watch a 3 minute video interview with Eric Carle as he describes his collage style and shows how he does it!  And...
Click here for an Art Lesson site that shows how to do Eric Carle-style art with pre-K and Kindergarten children.


If you would like to learn more about hermit crabs, the following websites have great information and fun things to do:
This link gives great facts about hermit crabs.
This link is an adorable Kindergarten lap book, that goes along with the book.  I LOVE this format and it is a great way to study literature across all subjects.


This link is to a second grade level research project on hermit crabs.
This link is to a webquest for 2nd and 3rd graders called Designing Hermit's Home.  Much younger children could use this site with a parent.
This link is to an interactive site about House for Hermit Crab.  There is much to see and do on this site!

And finally....
If you want to learn more about Eric Carle, click here to visit Eric Carle's official website.



We LOVE Eric Carle books around here and we hope that you do too!

See you on Monday!

Debbie
Posted by at 7:32 PM

7 comments:

  1. UnknownMarch 5, 2011 at 7:23 AM

    We haven't read that book yet. I'll have to check it out. Love the craft you did with it.

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  2. Polly @ Pieces by PollyMarch 5, 2011 at 7:33 AM

    I love this! We'll have to go check the book out again. My kids will love gluing stuff to his shell. Thanks so much for sharing and participating in our Read-Along.

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  3. Kathy HaynieMarch 5, 2011 at 9:29 AM

    I love it when little ones learn about the world, express themselves in art, AND have fun, too! Thank you Debbie for the great ideas.

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  4. shawnacyMarch 5, 2011 at 10:17 AM

    ooh, i had forgotten about a house for hermit crab. clicked over from the helping little hands read-along. :) my artistic boys loved the page that showed how to make the tissue paper figures. but the link to the eric carle interview doesn't seem to be working.

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  5. Mama Hen and the ChicksMarch 5, 2011 at 11:06 AM

    I will take a look at the Eric Carle interview link! Thanks for letting me know!

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  6. AnneMarch 5, 2011 at 11:32 PM

    Cute craft idea! Appreciate all your efforts to compile the resources too!

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  7. TheprincessandthetotMarch 10, 2011 at 4:38 PM

    This is one of our favorite books, and I simply adore your craft idea. We will absolutely be doing this soon!

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