Project: Finger-Painted Animals

Hand-printed and finger-printed animals

A week ago I did an author visit at Fullbright Avenue Elementary School in Los Angeles.  When I arrived, I found the auditorium filled with wonderful art inspired by my books, ranging from dioramas of African wildlife and zoo maps to camouflaged tigers and polar bears to a butterfly tree.  The curtains on the stage were decorated with a menagerie of animals–zebras, giraffes, an elephant, a chimpanzee swinging from a branch–all cut out and finger-painted by the pre-K students at the school.  The children had made the zebra’s stripes by dipping their fingers in black paint and drawing lines across the zebra’s body with their fingers.  The spots on the small giraffes were fingerprints of brown paint.  The large giraffe’s spots were created with hand prints.  All of the animals had manes made of glued on strips of yarn.  Glued-on googly eyes completed the creatures.  I was delighted to see the individuality in the animals and the creative use of materials–letting the children use their fingers as “brushes”.  While many of my books lend themselves to projects for older children, here is an excellent example of how my books can be used with younger children as well.
I thank Najma Hussain, the librarian at Fullbright, for introducing the students and teachers to my books, for preparing them for my visit, and  for organizing the day.  It was a successful and fun day for everyone!