Have you ever read: From Head to Toe, written and illustrated by Eric Carle? We share this book with our kindergarten students during our author/illustrator study of Eric Carle. It is impossible to sit when reading this book! One just wants to do exactly what the book is depicting; it is a favorite of our students.
This year, while watching a video clip of Mr. Carle painting his tissue paper, the students were mesmerized. I thought, since we had an unused Art Room during our study, wouldn’t it be wonderful if the students could create a sheet of tissue paper, just like Eric Carle and then use some of this paper for their own page in a book. The students noticed, while Mr. Carle was painting, that sometimes the tissue ripped … he never was upset when this happened since he was going to cut the paper to make his collage creations. 
This transferred over to when the students were painting their tissue paper … when it ripped, you could hear them saying to each other, “That’s okay, we are going to cut up the paper just like Eric.”
The students love his book From Head to Toe, so they wanted to create a similar book. We tried to choose animals he didn’t use in his book … and for the most part we succeeded, we forgot the flamingo was on the book 
jacket. They tried to think of a movement or action that an animal can do that they could do also. To aid in their page creation for a class book, we gave the students a template for the animal they chose but the students would create themselves without a template. Upon completing their page of the book, we took pictures of their pages and uploaded them to VoiceThread. Next the students recorded themselves reading their page of the book. Now they will be able to share their collaborative book with their families and hopefully the students will receive feedback, via VoiceThreads options for commenting. VoiceThread will also enable families to share the book with family and friends. An added bonus to making the book digital, is that we can send the original page home that each student created for their families to enjoy.
Below are the links to each kindergarten classroom’s wonderful books. We are calling them From Fast to Slow. We trust that Eric Carle understands “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” (Charles Caleb Colton).
Mrs. Bedell-Healy & Mrs. Brannelly’s Class http://voicethread.com/share/4535337/
Mrs. Cohn’s Class https://voicethread.com/share/4588761/
Mrs. Delaney’s Class http://voicethread.com/share/4535952/
Mrs. Disch’s Class http://voicethread.com/share/4535838/
Here is a short video showing the inspiration and the steps the students followed to create their wonderful books.
Thank you, Mr. Carle, for making our world such a rich and colorful place.
With much appreciation,
Mrs. Chase, Ms Greene and the kindergarten students at Chickering School
Quote: BrainQuote. 5 June 2013 < http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/c/charlescal203963.html >