THE VERY BUSY “PICTURE WRITER”

The Prolificacy of Eric Carle - An Author StudyAnn Marie Wasson

BIOGRAPHYEric Carle was born on June 25 in Syracuse, New York.

His parents were German emigrants.Carle and his family returned to Germany when he was 6.He grew up in Nazi Germany.

Carle graduated from the prestigious art school Akademie der bildenden Kunste in Stuttgart Germany.

Carle was a poster designer in Germany.Carle returned to the USACarle worked as a graphic designer for the New York Times.Carle was recruited by the US Army and stationed in Stuttgart, Germany for

two years.Carle was an art director for Frohlich & Company in New York Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? written by Bill Martin, Jr. is published. This is the first book that Eric Carle illustrated. It launched his career in children’s books.Carle has authored and illustrated over 70 children’s picture books.Carle opened The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amhurst, MA

Carle lives with his wife Bobbie in Northampton, MA and spends time in the NC mountains.

1929

1950

1950-521952

1952-561952

1956-19631967

1963-Present2002

Eric Carle Through the Years

Why does Eric Carle write children’s books? Carle says, “I want to show that learning is really both fascinating and fun.”

When asked which comes first, the story or the pictures, Carle says the idea.

Carle says the hardest part of writing picture books is developing the idea.

Some of his ideas floated around his head since his childhood.

The idea for The Very Hungry Caterpillar began with punching holes in a stack of paper. .

The Mixed Up Chameleon came from the melding of two experiences. 1. Visiting schools and drawing animals that students called out, sometimes stringing parts from different animals together. 2. Watching a chameleon at the zoo and wondering “what if a chameleon could change more than just its color?”

Even when Carle gets an idea, he waivers between thinking it is the best idea or worst idea he has ever had.

Carle takes his big idea and reduces and simplifies it to fit the format of a picture book.

Carle’s Writing

Carle’s Writing

He says he developed this skill as a child in school because things were hard for him to understand. Simplifying them made them understandable.

To do this Carle starts with a dummy book, 8 pages, folded and stapled which makes a 32 page blank book. He then sketches his idea in the book.

Carle says picture books are deceptively simple. “Let’s put it this way: if you are a novelist, I think you start with a 20 word idea, and you work at it and you wind up with a 200,000 word novel. We picture book people, or at least I, start with 200,000 words and I reduce it to 20.”

Carle says the artwork for his books goes very quickly. He makes collage illustrations. Carle uses acrylic paint which he mixes with water. He then uses this paint on white tissue paper.

He uses brushes and his fingers to paint.He uses bold colors.He layers colors onto the tissue.He lets the paper dry.He draws the image he wants onto tracing paper.He places the drawing paper over the colored paper and

cuts a section at a time, cutting through both layers.He puts glue on the back of each piece and places the

pieces on a white illustration board.If he chooses to use a background color, he glues down

a large piece of painted tissue and layers on top of it. He sometimes finishes details with crayons or colored

pencils.

Carle’s Artwork

I chose to use Eric Carle books in my classroom because, although they may appear to be just simple picture books for young children, Carle packs a lot of concepts that children need to learn in each one. Many times he uses their favorite topic, animals, which he illustrates in a bold attractive way. This makes each an engaging learning experience. That is a winning combination!

I would begin with the book with the most basic concept and least text… 1,2,3 To the Zoo.

I would progress through the books as they are ordered on the slides and use the activities listed there.

Unit of Study

1,2,3 To the Zoo

Teaching Ideas for KindergartenMath:

Teaching Ideas for KindergartenLanguage Arts:Use the train cars to retell the book.NCSCS3.04 Use speaking and listening skills and media to connect experiences to text: discussing, illustrating, and dramatizing stories. 

Use clip art or draw train cars with animals that match pages of the book, without the numeral.Have students count the animals and write the corresponding numeral with the train car.Have students put the cars in numerical order.NCSCS1.01 Develop number sense for whole numbers through 30.b. Count objects in a set.c. Read and write numerals.d. Compare and order sets and numbers.

SUMMARY: This is a wordless picture book. It is also a counting book. It begins with a picture of a train engine. Each page thereafter has animals that will be taken to the zoo on the train, beginning with one elephant and progressing to ten birds. The final page shows all the animals in their cages at the zoo.

Have You Seen My Cat?

SummaryIn this book, a little boy is searching for his cat. He asks everyone he encounters, “Have you seen my cat?” They each point him toward a cat, but none of them are his. Instead they are; a lion, a bobcat, a puma, a jaguar, a panther, a cheetah, a tiger, and a Persian cat. Finally, at the end he finds his cat, and it has had kittens!

Teaching Ideas for KindergartenLanguage Arts: Remind students that sentences have end marks like periods. As a class, decide what the exclamation mark and question mark mean.Use another type of animal, dog, perhaps to write a class book, using Carle’s book as a template.Teacher and students read both books repeatedly.

NCSCS1.01 Develop book and print awarenessDemonstrate an understanding of directionality and voice-print match by following print word for word when listening to familiar text read aloud.1.04 Read or begin to read: Attempt to read/reads simple patterned text, decodable text, and/or predictable texts using letter-sound knowledge and pictures to construct meaning.4.06 Write and/or participate in writing behaviors by using authors' models of language.

From Head to Toe

Summary: On each page of this book an animal shows a child something it can do with a body part, and then asks, “Can you do it?” The child copies the animal and says, “I can do it!” As suggested by the title, the book begins with a penguin turning its head. It progresses through parts down to toes.

Teaching Ideas for KindergartenHealthful Living/WritingAsk individual students to think of something he/she can do (not necessarily with body parts…could be “write my name”). Record responses. Make a class book from the responses. Teacher and students read and reread the book.NCSCSHealthful LivingGoal 1: The learner will develop knowledge and skills to enhance mental and emotional well-being.Language Arts 1.02 Develop book and print awareness. Demonstrate an understanding of directionality and voice-print match by following print word for word when listening to familiar text read aloud.1.04 Read or begin to read: Attempt to read/reads simple patterned text, decodable text, and/or predictable texts using letter-sound knowledge and pictures to construct meaning.4.06 Write and/or participate in writing behaviors by using authors' models of language.

Science/MathLook at animals in the text. Decide how they are alike and different. Sort by body covering, number of legs, or type of animal (bird, mammal, reptile).NCSCSScience 1.01 Observe and describe the similarities and differences among animals Math5.01 Sort and classify objects by one attribute.

Today is MondaySummary:

Eric Carle illustrated this popular children’s song. The song progresses through the days of the week with a different food for each day. For instance, “Today is Monday. Monday string beans.” As with most of his books, there is an animal on each page. At the end, children are implored, “All you hungry children, come eat it up!” The song’s lyrics and music are included at the end of the book.

Teaching Ideas for Kindergarten

Language Arts/Math:Make individual books. Have each child choose seven foods they like. Make a template and insert their foods in the text. Have a class picture or individual picture of students for the last page. Have the students illustrate their books with drawings or a collage of an animal with their food for each page. Now, they each have their own song to sing as well. Read, reread and sing books!NCSCSLanguage Arts:4.06 Write and/or participate in writing behaviors by using authors' models of language.Math:2.02 Recognize concepts of calendar time using appropriate vocabulary (days of the week, months of the year, seasons).

10 Little Rubber Ducks

SUMMARY:This colorful book is based on a true story of rubber ducks being lost at sea and drifting until they made landfall. It begins in a factory where rubber ducks are made. It follows the ducks as they are being shipped. They end up on a cargo ship. A storm washes a box of ducks overboard. There are ten. The book follows each duck as it drifts away. Carle uses ordinal numbers 1st- 10th when telling where each duck goes.

Extra!The 10th Rubber Duck on the last page quacks when you press it.

Teaching Ideas for KindergartenLanguage Arts: Students use 10 duck cut outs or actual rubber ducks and cut outs of other animals in the story to retell it.

NCSCS3.04 Use speaking and listening skills and media to connect experiences to text: discussing, illustrating, and dramatizing stories.

Teaching Ideas for KindergartenMath: Use ducks numbered 1-10. Have students line up 1st- 10th to show the relationship between the numeral and the ordinal number. Play a game, calling out directions like: the person with the third duck turn around one time; the person with the eighth duck jump up and down, etc. Use ducks labeled with ordinal numbers.Hand out ducks randomly. Ask for certain ducks to stand or sit. Ask for students to arrange themselves in order according to what duck they have.

NCSCS1.01 e. Use ordinals (1st-10th)

“Slowly, Slowly, Slowly,” Said the SlothSummary:

In this book, set in the Amazon rain forest, the sloth does everything slowly while hanging from a tree. Other animals who live there ask him why he is so slow and quiet and boring. The sloth does not answer. Finally, a jaguar asks him why he is so lazy. The sloth responds with many descriptors of his slow behavior but does not agree that he is lazy. He says this is just the way he is.

Teaching Ideas for Kindergarten

This book would be terrific to kick off a unit about animals in the Amazon rain forest.Science:

The class could research the animals from the book (which are labeled on the end pages), as well as others, that live there. NCSCS 1.01 Observe and describe the similarities and differences among animals including: movement

Math: Find out how other animals from the book move and sort them into categories, like fast and slow.NCSCS5.01 Sort and classify objects by one attribute.

Writing: Examine the words the sloth used to explain his slowness, choose another animal you have researched and use the poetic page from the book as a template to write about that animal.

The class could write a nonfiction book about one of the animals that have been researched.

The class could write fiction about an animal that was researched using the whole book as a template. NCSCS4.01 Use new vocabulary in own speech and writing. 4.06 Write and/or participate in writing behaviors by using authors' models of language.

Art: Have students to paint paper, cut and tear it to make illustrations for the books the class has written in the same fashion that Eric Carle does. Carle uses tissue paper as shown in the slideshows. I would use art paper or finger-paint paper with young students and let students cut out the shapes they want with scissors or tear the paper.www.eric-carle.com/EricCarleCollageMakingInstructionSheet.pdfwww.eric-carle.com/slideshow_paint.htmlwww.eric-carle.com/slideshow_collage.html

Social Studies/Science Find the Amazon rain forest on the globe and a map. Read the foreword by Jane Goodall and discuss how the depletion of the Amazon rain forest is affecting animal habitats.

The Mixed Up Chameleon

SummaryThe Mixed Up Chameleon begins with a chameleon that is just doing its thing, hanging out, changing colors, sitting, and watching for flies to come by, so that it can eat. Then, it sees animals in a zoo. It wishes to become like the animals there. Each time, parts from that animal are added to it, but it is never happy. At the end, the chameleon wishes to become itself again.

Interesting FactsThis book came about as the synthesis of two experiences. First, Mr. Carle had visited classrooms and he “worked” on a book about favorite animals. The children gave suggestions as he drew. They were calling out ideas. He was drawing quickly. The animals got put together. The children thought it was hilarious. Second, Mr. Carle went to a zoo to sketch animals. He was watching a chameleon and wondered what might happen if it could change more than its color. The ideas somehow melded together and this is the resulting book. After the chameleon wishes to become like an animal, Eric Carle drew a picture of that animal on the edge of the page. The first on is at the top, and they progress to the bottom by the end. The remaining pages are cut out on the edge so that the reader can see each animal. Each animal is a different color. On the last page the chameleon is standing under a rainbow with colors that correspond to the animals. In fact, they appear to be coming from them.

Language Arts:Review Colors. Each animal is a different color.NCSCS4.03 Use words that describe color, size, and location in a variety of texts:

Social Studies:Ask why the chameleon wants to change.. Examine the qualities he sees in the other animals. Does that make them special? What is unique about the chameleon? Why is he special? Why does he wish to be himself? Relate this to people, particularly students.Take some pictures of different students and mix up features. Is that the person we know? It could be done by hand or with Photoshop:1-drag the two pictures into one image making each in a single layer2-resize to fit3-reduce the transparency of the upper layer to see both faces in the same time4-you can erase some parts of one face(say eyes)with the nose of the other face...etc...( http://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070425201502AA7OopC)Make a list of students. Have the class come up with something special about each student.NCSCS1.01 Describe how individuals are unique and valued.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

SummaryA tiny, very hungry caterpillar is born. Throughout a week he eats and grows. He starts out eating fruit. Then, he eats so much junk that he gets a stomach ache. After that, he returns to caterpillar food (a leaf). He forms a cocoon, and finally, comes out a beautiful butterfly.

ExtrasThe fruit pictures are staggered narrowest page to widest page.The pages that have food have die cut holes to mimic the hole a caterpillar would chew.

Teaching Ideas for KindergartenMath/Language ArtsLearn the sequence of the days of the week and of the story.Make cut outs representing each page (leaf with egg, tiny caterpillar, sun, one apple, two pears, etc.) Have students use the props to retell the story.NCSCSMath2.02 Recognize concepts of calendar time using appropriate vocabulary (days of the week, months of the year, seasons). Language Arts3.04 Use speaking and listening skills and media to connect experiences to text: discussing, illustrating, and dramatizing stories.

MathUse cut outs to make sets of fruit. Match a numeral to each set and put them in numerical order.Count all food to find the total items that the caterpillar ate. Use addition terms when discussingNCSCS1.01 Develop number sense for whole numbers through 30b. Count objects in a set.d. Compare and order sets and numbers.

ScienceRead this book during a unit of study of the butterfly life cycle. Attain a monarch egg. (In NC, a good time to find eggs is mid to late August. You can find them on the underside of milkweed leaves. The milkweed plant grows at the edge of fields, many times just off the side of the road.) Observe the “real” caterpillar. Read nonfiction books about the butterfly life cycle. Compare and contrast the real caterpillar with Eric Carle’s caterpillar. NCSCS1.01 Observe and describe the similarities and differences among animals including: structure; growth; changes; movement.1.02 Observe how animals interact with their surroundings. Use illustrations and cut-outs to discuss the types of food that the caterpillar ate.

Healthful LivingUse illustrations and cut outs to discuss the types of food that the caterpillar ate.Classify as healthy/unhealthy. Sort cut outs into those categories.NCSCS4.02 Explore a variety of foods and beverages for good health, including unfamiliar and culturally diverse foods.

Books by Eric Carle

Eric Carle’s Awards(listed on his website)

A Comprehensive List of Eric Carle’s Awards

Carle, Eric. (1987) Have You Seen My Cat? New York, NY: Aladdin Paperbacks.Carle, Eric. (1997) From Head to Toe. New York, NY: Scholastic.Carle, Eric. (1993) Today Is Monday. New York, NY: Philomel Books.Carle, Eric. (1968,1987) 1, 2, 3, To the Zoo. New York, NY: The Putnam & Grosset Group.Carle, Eric. (2005) 10 Little Rubber Ducks. New York, NY: HarperCollinsPublishers.Carle, Eric. (2002) “Slowly, Slowly, Slowly,” Said the Sloth. New York, NY: Philomel Books.Carle, Eric. (1975, 1984) The Mixed Up Chameleon. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.Carle, Eric. (1969, 1987) The Very Hungry Caterpillar. New York, NY: Philomel Books.Something About the Author. Vol. 163. Detroiit: Gale, 2006. p. 49-59.http://www.eric-carle.comhttp://www.readingrockets.org/http://www2.scholastic.comhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Carlehttp://biography.jrank.org/pages/1783/Carle-Eric-1929.htmlhttp://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&hl=en&source=hp&biw=1024&bih=515&q=eric+carle&gbv=2&oq=eric+carle&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=undefined&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=34782l38313l0l10l10l0l0l0l0l656l1171l5-2l2

References