"Frederick" by Leo Lionni Art Lesson

This book is perfect for an art lesson!  Making Frederick is so easy. I taught my 1st grade students this lesson and they loved it.

I read the story and then showed them the videos about Leo Lionni at this link:

http://www.randomhousekids.com/brand/leo-lionni/videos/

 There are 3 videos there with Leo Lionni talking about his life, art and even making a Frederick.

The idea is for the students to make their own Frederick and then to create an adventure of their own for Frederick.  Now they are Authors and Illustrators!

 I showed them these two examples and we brainstormed other adventures for Frederick.

Now it's time to make Frederick.

I printed these out ahead of time - here is a JPEG

 I printed them on grey paper and showed the students how to tear the outline like Leo Lionni does.

 Once it's torn turn it over so the lines don't show.

Now you're ready to add the ears, tail, legs and eyes.

I used these two paper punches to make the eyes.

I gave the students scraps of paper and modeled making a S shape for the tail, C shapes for the arms, straight lines for the legs and ovals for the ears.

Once they had Frederick created I handed out large sheets of white paper and colored pencils.

Here are some of their Frederick adventures:

It was so much fun for them to use their imagination and come up with an adventure for Frederick!