Sahar’s Beautiful Butterfly
I have to say that I LOVE Eric Carle’s beautiful art! The colors and the textures he creates on tissue paper is magical and the whole process is easy and fun for any age.
Pre-K is learning about insects and I thought making Eric Carle inspired insects from scratch would be a fabulous experience for the little ones.
We started looking at Eric Carle books with insect themes (The Grouchy ladybug, The Lonely Firefly, etc.) and we talked about the colors and the way the artist made the pictures. Next, while the students were drawing their insects on practice paper (this keeps them busy), I worked with two kids at a time on the tissue paper. Have a variety of pre-mixed interesting colors (stick to three or four colors max!) and brushes and rollers ready. Let the kids decide which color tissue paper they want to paint and let them explore and have fun!
Rolling with textured rollers
They should start by rolling paint then they can splatter paint and finger paint using all the different colors they want. Just make sure it doesn’t get messy and all just one big blob of a color. Hang them up to dry ( your class will look lovely!) and once they have dried cut they large pieces into 9×12 sheets.
Because in Pre-K kids are still working on their fine motor skills and their cutting is still at an early stage I usually have pre-cut thin cardboard templates of different sized wings, bodies and heads to help the kids. Remember that tissue paper is thin and the templates will help them cut out their shapes. It would be good at this point to show them if they fold a piece of tissue paper in half then they will have two wings after they cut. Remind them to draw on the side that isn’t painted if possible.
Thin cardboard templates for insect wings, bodies and heads
On a large piece of white paper have your kids place their pieces without gluing yet. Let them play around and ‘plan’ their work–a great skill to start learning from now. Once they are happy with their insect, they can glue the parts down and add details such as eyes, antennas, stripes, dots, feet, etc..
Using the templates
The result is stunning and so beautiful that it will seem Eric Carle did the insects himself!
Abdulla’s Flying Insect
Angelique’s Firefly
Sana’s Caterpillar
Psst..
FREEBIE e-Book time! Sign up today for The Happy Whole Teacher messages and get some lovin’ pep talks to keep you happy, balanced, energised and inspired throughout the school year straight to your inbox.
Follow this link to get started or click on the image below to join for FREE. As a big thank you, you’ll receive my E-Book ‘ART PROJECTS FOR ANYTIME‘ for FREE!
PS: The Happy Whole Teacher Revolution is coming soon this September!! Stay tuned and get ready to be part of something BIG.
Alejandra xx
Visit Art Lessons for Kids on Facebook and join the community. Lots of exciting things happening and plenty of inspiration. Why not join the Inspired Teacher Monthly membership program? If you love my lesson ideas here on the blog, imagine receiving form me curated lesson plans from around the web that I use, inspiration and motivation to stay on top of your teaching game, monthly talks around a specific topic or theme, coaching and more!
Click on the image below to get a FREE sample month to check it out!
ART LESSONS FOR KIDS 
amazing!!!
I am usually opposed to the idea of templates (because the artwork can come out looking “cookie cutter”), but I like really this application! It still allows for students to make lots of artistic choices. It’s nice, too, that you didn’t concentrate on one of his books, but on many. They turned out so beautiful! I love this unit, great job!
I totally agree! I am anti templates and this is probably the only time you’ll see me use them. Tissue paper is a very hard for little hands to cut and the templates worked out quite well. Some kids didn’t even want to use them which was great. They knew it was there in case they wanted them. Kinder and older grades would not have the templates for any Eric Carle inspired art work!
I love the creative freedom found in your lessons! I will start my first year of teaching this Aug and I am having such a hard time finding lessons for k-2 that don’t consist of just following directions and ending up with artwork that all looks alike. Your projects are so inspiring and go way beyond producing work, I can’t wait to try them out this next year!
Thanks! Good luck with your first year teaching–you’re going to love it!
I love this idea so much. They look beautiful. I will have to try to find some tissue paper and give this a try! What’s amazing is how translucent they look – as though they were suncatchers. But they’re glued onto plain white paper, right?
Thank you. Yes they are glued on white paper. They were hanging on my fishing lines in my classroom with the light behind them, that’s why they look translucent–maybe a good way to display them!
Pingback: Eric Carle Insects « Dresses 'n Messes
Wow!!! Beautiful!!! I linked to this idea today: http://dressesandmesses.wordpress.com/2010/04/12/eric-carle-insects/
I love that although you provided a template, this is still very open-ended and the kids can put their own twists on it. Thanx for a fabulous idea!
Tried this lesson with my Pre-K art class – They loved making them and they turned out beautifully! Great idea!!
Hi Iam a mother I was wondering why would you introduce Eric Carl’s work to children in this manner.
thanks
There are many amazing ways to teach kids the wonderful art of Eric Carle. This lesson was one of many I do. The class was learning about insects in their class so The Hungry Catetpillar was quite popular. At the time, I was thinking of a lesson to help them explore paint so I decided to join the two ideas together.
what kind of paint works best with the tissue paper
I use regular tempera paint because it’s thick and rolls and spreads nicely on the tissue paper. Have fun!
Did you use regular tissue paper or did you buy special from an art store? thanks!
I used regular tissue paper- nothing fancy since you will be painting over mist if it. Check the Dick Blick link I have on the side bar of the
Blog. I order everything from them.
Pingback: https://artlessonsforkids.me/2009/05/18/eric-carle-art-in-pre-kindergarten/ | makingartwork
What is the weight and size of the white paper you use for this project?
It is the regular white 12×18 construction paper. You can use any color however I suggest white because the tissue paper will stand out better.
i am taking a class in school right now called Art for the Elementary teacher and the lesson for this unit is on collage..i was stumbling around online looking for inspiration for a project idea and found your site! i love eric carle, always have! he even has some great tips on his site for working with tissue and creating pictures! thanks for the tutorial, im excited to see what i can create!