Eric Carle Author Study Celebration

Today we celebrated the end of our author study of Eric Carle and the fabulous books that he has written. Books that were studied during workshops included The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Grouchy Ladybug, The Very Busy Spider, The Very Clumsy Click Beetle, From Head to Toe, The Very Lonely Firefly, and Eric Carl's favorite book, Do you want to be my friend? There were other books that we used as read alouds which children enjoyed making connections to and comparing them to other books they have heard. This was a wonderful way to introduce students to an author study.
Today, children wore their caterpillar shirts and had fun rotating in centers set up with other kindergarten classrooms. These centers included: reading Mr. Seahorse (a book that the children did not hear before) and an art tissue paper project whereby children glued tissue squares onto an outline of a seahorse, cut it out, and placed it on a blue paper background; next was the Pancake Center - a homage to the book Pancakes, Pancakes - they played bingo or watched an Eric Carle moving while waiting for their pancakes. Then outside fun - an obstacle course including running through tunnels while sequencing an Eric Carle book. Finally, we integrated technology by utilizing a Smartboard. Because Eric Carle books are about animals, the activity revolved around sorting herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores. Special thanks to Melanie H., Pam G., and Nicki H. (all classroom parents) for that activity. The afternoon was full of more Eric Carle books that we did not get to read during the author study, include "Hello Red Fox" which was a big hit with the children - their eyes played tricks on them -- followed by more art activities and of course, our caterpillar cake compliments of Elizabeth H.which will be on the next slide show. The day was about the children celebrating a great author and our goal was accomplished!!
More pictures will be coming shortly.