The other day on my prep period, I was perusing the school library looking for a book to read to my k-2nd graders because the lesson I had planned (for the schools Square 1 art fundraiser) only took about 30 minutes of our 40 minute period and I wanted something to occupy the whole class for the remaining 10 minutes. As I was browsing our fantastic librarian recommended a book called Look, Look, Look by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace. She recommended this book to me as an especially good followup to the book Mouse Paint, which I had previously read to my kindergartners. I brought it back to my room and read it through and absolutely loved it!
The premise of the book is simple, 3 mice find a postcard from 'art' that had been mailed to the people in the house who were away on vacation. On the postcard is a famous artwork and the mice finding it particularly interesting, take the card into their mouse 'house' and start analyzing it. As the book proceeds, the mice make frames to look at the artwork in, collages of the shapes that the artwork has in it, and color families that go with the artworks paint colors. The book easily teaches young students how to look at and analyze some qualities found in 2-dimensional works. I'm going to make 'frames' like the mice had in the book, have them laminated, so they have a clear see-through center, and then have my k-2 grades use them to view and analyze works of art. I think they'll love it. It's great to find a book that illustrates some art criticism, which I find particularly difficult to teach to my students, especially the younger grades.
I've never heard of this book before, but it sounds great. I'll have to "Look, look, look" for it!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a wonderful book. I've been thinking of having kids make a journal entry about art prints by using viewfinders made from empty slide mounts. This book would be a good introduction to that!
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