Eric Carle Collage

This project was based off of Eric Carle’s book The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The first thing we did was to create sheets of painted paper using various colors. This was done by using equal amounts of paint and wallpaper paste to give it a sort of translucent look. Then designs were made in the paint. While those were drying the next step was to create a two page story concept. We could do something from The Very Hungry Caterpillar or choose something of our own. I chose to do a storyboard about a ladybug that is different than other ladybugs. Once you have your story idea you use the painted sheets of paper to cut out your objects. Once you have everything cut out, choose a large piece of construction paper. Apply the painted objects and create a two page story collage on the construction paper. My first page shows a black ladybug with yellow spots sitting on a leaf all alone. The second page shows the lonely ladybug surrounded by four other ladybugs. They don’t care what he looks like and from that day on he is never alone.

Extension Activity:
You can pretty much use this project with any story you chose to read or have the students illustrate a story they wrote. For younger children be very specific about a particular scene from the book for them to focus on. For older children allow them to choose a scene and give them the creativity to interpret the scene as they see it. Depending on the time and supplies you can do this project the way we did it, you can use just construction paper or you can use crayons and markers. I personally like the way we did it because of the translucent effect and the designs in the paint, it gives it a textured look.