Artist: Connie Fenicchia

Workshop: Poetic Images Through Painting and Collage

Grade Level: Pre-K - 3

Book: Beast Feast              
           Poems and painting by Douglas Florian
           San Diego and New York: Voyager/Harcourt Brace & Co., 1994

I have chosen to work with the book, Beast Feast, because the author/illustrator uses words, iamges and a medium that elementary school children will become immediately engaged in.  The paintings that illustrate the book show more than just the particular animal; they also include visual allusions to the imagery evoked either by the poem or by the animal itself.  I particularly liked the painting of the pigeon having a "bird's eye view" of the people below.  For the little ones, this book could simply be used as a picture journey to talk about and list, "what do you see?" (Which animal is it?  What details help you know this?  What colors were used?  What type of background ws chosen?)  The way that the author has decided to write some of the words is also visually unusual.  Sometimes a word look as though it is moving or written in a way that describes the action of the wrod.  And look closely ... there are words in some of the pictures, too!

        Because the images in the book are painted, we will explore and experiement with color mixing and mark making using tempera paint.  This activity will be extended into collage making, using out painted papers to create animal collages.