Wednesday, October 26, 2011

A Leaf Man Goes Where the Wind Blows


I'm a HUGE Lois Ehlert fan. If you have a child (or teach children) under the age of ten, you've got to own her books! She's an author/illustrator whose collage technique draws from organic objects ( leaves, seeds, fabric and roots), to help her pages come alive.  

When Nana visited this past month, she and my seven-year-old used the THE LEAF MAN again as a guide for their fall project.
How could they not? The images in the book are gorgeous. Ehlert created the scenes using real leaves. The one below is a "stream of fish and turtles":
When I taught second grade, my students collected leaves to re-create some of her images. See the turkeys, below?

So Nana and Evan set to work, gathering up fall.

After they created their leaf images, they used a warm iron to press them between sheets of wax paper.

A perfect fall craft! Can't wait to show off Ehlert's SNOWBALLS book this winter!

19 comments:

Christine Danek said...

This looks like so much fun. Perfect for my little monsters. I will have to look for her book too. THanks.

Stina said...

That is soooo cool. Too bad the leaves are pretty much gone for us. Maybe I can find some this weekend and try this out with the kids. :D

Kelly Polark said...

I love her picture books, too. I've used them in the classroom many times!

Slamdunk said...

What a great idea. We certainly have plenty of leaves available for a projects like this.

Matthew MacNish said...

This is so gorgeous it makes me want to swear.

Pamela Gold said...

Oh these illustrations are fabulous. I have a teeny one and need to get my hands on this book!

mshatch said...

I just shared this with my sister who teaches and has a 4/5 year old. This is cool!

Meredith said...

Wow, that's so cool! What a perfect fall project. I want to try to make those turkeys!

Christina Lee said...

Awesome, MS--she'll love it!

Matt, swear away! :D

Tara Tyler said...

how fun!
brings me back to teaching preschool (when my guys were little =) *wipes memory tear*

Dianne K. Salerni said...

Oh, how cute!
My daughter is in sixth grade, but she would totally get into making leaf people!

Sarah Tokeley said...

How lovely. Makes me wish my kids were still little :-)

Susan Fields said...

Those are wonderful illustrations! And what a fun craft project!

MG Higgins said...

Makes me want to run outside and gather some leaves! So creative. Thanks for sharing this book with us. I wasn't familiar with it.

Beth said...

What stunning artwork! I think she's done a wonderful job, and so have the students.

Lourie said...

Boo: I only have ONE under ten! :(
YAY: I just might be able to get them all on board with it! Very cool. :)

Peggy Eddleman said...

My kids have done this at school. It's so awesome! I always love to see the results. They're always amazing!

Unknown said...

Beautiful pictures here. All I have are pine needles here. I'll have to take the kids to the park to do this.

Sophia Chang said...

how cool!

And second grade seems fun - I've always considered teaching, but getting up at 5 a.m. is not going to happen. I don't even go to sleep until 5 a.m...