Teaching Activities

Discussions and Projects
based on Elisa Kleven's Books

 

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YOUR PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE

John Muir, a man who loved, studied, and worked to conserve nature, said "Whenever we try to isolate anything in the universe, we find that it's hitched up to everything else."
This great thought inspired me to write my book
THE DANCING DEER AND THE FOOLISH HUNTER.

Like the deer in the story who can't dance apart from her home in the forest by the sea, each one of us is "hitched up", or connected, to everything else in our environment. Imagine life without the sun which warms us, the earth which gives us food, the rain clouds, oceans, forests, people and animals which support us in all sorts of ways. Like the deer, we're all part of an infinite web of life.

What are the ways that you are connected to the universe? (In ten words or less -- just kidding! I'm sure the ways are endless.) Draw a picture of where you are in your world.

 

What if Ernst got a spaceship
for his birthday?

 What Ifs?
ERNST. Ernst, the small blue crocodile, is always wondering "what if". ("What if sand were fudgy instead of sandy?" "What if my birthday came every day?" ) What are some of your own "what ifs?" Try collecting them into your own "What-If Book" and making pictures to illustrate them. You might even want to expand one of your "what-ifs" into a story. Just about all stories, after all, start out as "what-ifs" in the author's mind. Examples: "What if there were a boy named Harry Potter who was really a powerful wizard?" "What if there were a spider named Charlotte who saved a pig by writing messages in her web?" "What if there were a grandma called 'Abuela' who flew over New York City with a girl named Rosalba?"

 

Animal Friends and Collage
THE LION AND THE LITTLE RED BIRD. In this story, a bird and a lion become good friends even though they don't share the same way of speaking. Do you have a friend whose language you don't understand, but who manages to communicate with you anyway? Maybe you "speak" by smiling to one another, or maybe with sign language. Perhaps you have an animal friend. Dogs and cats can't speak our language, but they tell us how they are feeling by wagging their tails or purring. When my cats are unhappy they hiss and when my dogs are sad or need a walk they sulk and give me dirty looks.

Art and music are "universal languages", languages without words, that all people share. In THE LION AND THE LITTLE RED BIRD the sight of the Lion's colorful tail and cave paintings make the bird happy. The sound of the bird's music makes the lion happy. What sights make you happy -- or sad? What sounds ? (apart from spoken language?)

The pictures in this story are made with many materials. I painted the lion with golden-brown watercolor, and glued down bits of fuzzy yarn to make his mane. I painted the bird's body red, and made her feathers by cutting out pieces of special paper called "marbelized paper." ( The patterns on marbelized paper remind me of bird's wings.) Pictures made from different materials pasted together are called "collages." You have probably made collages by gluing beans and macaroni to paper. Perhaps you've made Valentine collages by gluing paper doily hearts to paper and adding glitter or bits of cloth. What other examples of collage can you see in THE LION AND THE LITTLE RED BIRD? (Example : the trees in the forest are made by cutting up and gluing together bits of tissue paper, and other textured papers.) Perhaps you've seen other picture books illustrated with collage. Leo Lionni, Ezra Jack Keats, and Eric Carle are some of my favorite collage artists. Their picture books inspire my own. Try making your own collages. Collect materials which appeal to you : feathers, beads, bits of cloth, pages torn from magazines or catalogs, old holiday cards, etc. Combine them to form your own collage picture. Paint or draw parts of your picture if you want to. Paint on whole pages of paper and cut your paintings into different shapes. Have fun -- there are no rules in collage!

Paper collage bird from "The Paper Princess"


Trash & Treasure - our many selves
THE PAPER PRINCESS. The paper princess is many things to many people -- and other creatures. To the little girl who made her she is, of course, a princess and a work of art to be proud of , "the best thing I've ever made." To the little girl who finds her on the playground she is just "a paper doll", and an object she throws away after mistakenly drawing green hair on it. To the the bird who finds the princess in the trash can, she is "a fat wad of paper", a handy piece of material she'd like to weave into her nest. To the little boy in the meadow, the princess becomes a piece of blank paper on which to draw a birthday card. Once she is returned to the girl who made her, the princess becomes a beloved "princess" once again!

You are many things to many people, too. To your parents you are a daughter or a son. To your sibling(s) you are a sister or a brother. To your teacher you are a student; to your grandparents you are a grandchild; to your friends you are a friend. All of these various "people" add up to one special you! What other "people" live inside you?

Objects can take on many uses and "new lives", too. In my daughter's hands, ordinary shoe boxes become houses for dolls and teddy bears. What can you do with a box? Make it into a chair or a table, perhaps? What else? What other objects can be many things to many people?

 

Imaginary friends, and pinatas
HOORAY, A PINATA! In this story, Clara pretends that her dog pinata is a real dog. (She can't have a real dog because her mother is allergic.) Have you ever had a make-believe pet? When I was a little girl, I wanted a horse very badly. But I lived in a big city, without any horses nearby. So I pretended that my bicycle was my horse. I even named my bike "Ginger", and I "fed" her by putting carrots and apples into my bicycle basket.

People have used pinatas to help celebrate special occasions for a hundreds of years. The custom began about five hundred years ago in Italy. At parties, it was the fashion for the host to fill fragile, pineapple-shaped pots (called "pignatte") with treats for their guests. Pinata parties soon became popular in Spain, then traveled with the Spanish settlers to Mexico. Mexican pinata makers developed the craft into an art form. Their pinatas come in all sorts of fantastic shapes and sizes. If you could design your own pinata, what would it look like? Would it be too beautiful or cute to break? What kind of pinata wouldn't you mind breaking? click here for detailed instructions on how to make your own pinata!

Collecting!
THE PUDDLE PAIL. I sometimes use animal characters in my stories, and pretend that they are people. In THE PUDDLE PAIL, the crocodile brothers, Ernst and Sol, behave like human brothers might. What are some of your favorite stories with animals who act like people? Try writing and illustrating your own story using animal "people".

In THE PUDDLE PAIL, Ernst is a dreamy, imaginative character. He wants to collect things like clouds, stars, and puddles. His big brother Sol, a practical, down-to-earth fellow, tells Ernst that these kinds of things are impossible to collect. Sol likes to collect "real" things, like rocks and shells. But things don't have to be "tangible" (that is, capable of being touched or held in your hands) to be "real." Emotions such as happiness, sadness, anger and love are very real indeed. So are wishes. To Ernst, beauty is real . He wants to collect stars and clouds and puddles because they are beautiful. The wonderful reflections Ernst notices in puddles are every bit as real as Sol's seashells.

What do you like to collect? What would you collect if you could collect anything? Have you ever considered "collecting" intangible things like wishes or dreams? What would you "do" with such a collection? Ernst's wish to collect clouds, stars, and puddles leads him to make a painting collection. I collect ideas and impressions in notebooks, and make stories out of them. THE PUDDLE PAIL was inspired by the sight of beautiful puddles in my neighborhood on a rainy day. Maybe a sight or a wish or a dream will inspire you to make a story, a poem, or a painting.


Two pages from "The Puddle Pail"


Tall Tales!
A MONSTER IN THE HOUSE. In this story, a girl tries to impress her new neighbor with stories of the "monster" who lives in her house. This "monster" screams when awakened, yells for his squishy, unappetizing food, spits up on everything, sucks his toes and pulls the girl's hair. Later we discover that the monster is the girl's baby brother -- and we are reminded that we were all such "monsters" when we were babies.

The girl in this story creates a kind of "tall tale" about her baby brother. A tall tale is a story which combines fact with fiction, by greatly exaggerating real qualities about a character. The story of the giant Paul Bunyan is a famous example of a tall tale. Create your own tall tale by humorously exaggerating the traits of someone you know . Or try writing a tall tale about yourself.

A MONSTER IN THE HOUSE is also a riddle. We don't know what kind of "monster" the girl is talking about until the end, when we realize that, in her mind, her baby brother and monsters have many qualities in common! Perhaps you could write your own riddle-story. Describe interesting qualities about your main character, but don't name him or her until the end. Maybe your riddle will focus on the positive qualities of someone you know. A story about a beloved grandparent, or other family member, might be called "An Angel In My House".

 

Make Your Own Sun!
SUN BREAD

"The sun shines not on us but in us." --John Muir



In winter, when the days are dark and cold, people make their own light and warmth inside. They come together to light festive Hannukah, Christmas and Kwaanza candles. They bake fragrant cookies and breads.

I began to think about the story SUN BREAD one cold, rainy day when my children and I decided to cheer ourselves up by baking bread. As we made our round, buttery creation, I thought about all of the things that the sun and fresh bread have in common. Both rise. Both are warm. Both are golden. Both sustain life and raise spirits (it's hard to feel gloomy while smelling or eating freshly baked bread!)

 

Creating art, like baking bread, is another way of "making your own weather." Try painting a blizzardy scene on a hot summer day, or a blazing summer garden on a gray one. Or bake a sun bread of your own!

 





Email Elisa at EKleven@aol.com   Website designed by Mira Reisberg miraguy@earthlink.net
All images and text copyright Elisa Kleven. Site last updated October 2006 by Andy Therrien