VIRTUAL SCHOOL VISIT at Ladera Stars Academy, Thousand Oaks, CA

Last Friday I had an enjoyable visit online with Julie Nerland’s kindergarten class at Ladera Stars Academy in Thousand Oaks, California. The kids were very enthusiastic and very responsive. Julie and I struggled a bit with the technology (she never figured out how to get her camera to work so I never got to see the children) but the important part was that the kids could see me and I could hear them. I learned that they recently hatched chicken eggs in their classroom and would soon be adding the chicks to the school flock. Every day children at the school feed the chickens and collect eggs. Because of the kindergarteners’ interest in chickens I focused my presentation mainly on my book HATCHING CHICKS IN ROOM 6 and other books about birds. (We discussed that chickens are birds, and like all birds, chickens lay eggs and have feathers.) I also shared my book A ZEBRA’S WORLD and showed them how they can make their own cut paper art using the downloadableinstructions at my website. We finished by singing the Wiggle and Waggle song, which I acted out with my sock puppets.

I thank Kristen Bott Nordstrom for making my visit possible and for arranging the details. She purchased the author visit for her school at a fund raiser for victims of the recent terrible fires in Los Angeles and Altadena. I was happy to contribute the author visit to the cause.

Note: I am accustomed to using Zoom for virtual author visits to schools. However, this school no longer has Zoom available on their school computers, so we were using GoogleMeets, a platform that neither the teachers nor I had much familiarity with. We made it work but it would have been better if the classroom camera had been connected. Next time!

MY ART ON EXHIBIT AT UCLA: The Silvia Winstein UCLA Emeriti/Retirees Arts and Crafts Exhibit 2024

Illustrations from A Day and Night on the Prairie (top) and A Day and Night in the Forest (bottom).

I had a fun day yesterday at the Silvia Winstein UCLA Emeriti/Retirees Arts and Crafts Exhibit 2024, held in the Faculty Center on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles, I enjoyed talking with the other twenty-four artists and seeing their work, which ranged from paintings and drawings, to photography, sculpture, ceramics, and jewelry. I exhibited illustrations from my books A Day and Night in the Forest and A Day and Night in the Prairie.  They are giclee prints of my original cut paper art. After setting up the show in the morning, it was open to the public for viewing from 11am to 4pm, with a festive reception at 2pm. It was my first time to join this group. I thank the Emeriti/Retirees Relations Center and Shirley Ho for all the organization that makes this annual event such a success. 

All the artists who exhibited in the show. (Photo by Albert Hsu.)

CURLICUE SNAKES, CUT PAPER AND MORE, Art Projects Inspired by My Books

On my recent trip to the Humboldt County Children's Author Festival, I was delighted to discover how my books had inspired art in the classroom. At Ambrosini School in Fortuna, California, I saw that each class had chosen a different book. Their artwork was displayed in the multipurpose room where I gave my presentation. One child even made a portrait of me!  Here are some of the projects:

WIGGLE AND WAGGLE

One class made colorful Wiggle and Waggle worms.

A DAY AND NIGHT IN THE FOREST

Several classes used cut paper to create day and night scenes.

A DAY AND NIGHT ON THE PRAIRIE

A row of paper curlicue snakes, inspired by the garter snake in the book, hung from a ledge. Click for directions to make curlicue snakes. 

A ZEBRA'S WORLD

Watercolor paintings depicted zebras on the African plain. 

KEEPER OF THE LIGHT: Juliet Fish Nichols Fights the San Francisco Fog

A first grade class drew pictures and assembled them to make a mural of Juliet Nichols ringing the giant lighthouse bell in the fog.

For more ideas for projects to do in connection with my books go to the Fifty Nifty Projects and Activities page at my website.

ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A DAY AND NIGHT IN THE DESERT, at the Morris Graves Museum of Art, Eureka, CA

At the Morris Graves Museum of Art, Eureka, CA.

 I have just returned from the Humboldt County Children’s Author Festival, four days of celebrating books and reading. Events include author visits to schools throughout Humboldt County, book signing at the Humboldt County Library in Eureka, California, a dinner and banquet with community members, and an exhibit of children’s book illustrations by participating author/illustrators at the Morris Graves Museum of Art. Two of my cut-paper illustrations from my book A Day and Night in the Desert are part of the exhibit. The art, on display in the downstairs youth art section, will remain up through the end of October and possibly through the end of November. With many thanks to Lucy Quimby on the Festival Committee, and Jemima Harr at the Morris Graves Museum of Art. I am pleased to have the opportunity to share my work as part of the Author Festival.

For more about the Festival, see my post at this blog for October 26, 2022.

In front of the Morris Graves Museum.

 

 

VIRTUAL AUTHOR VISIT at Verdugo Woodland School, Glendale, CA

When Mammoths Walked the Earth, Japanese and English editions

Last Tuesday I had a terrific virtual visit with the first and second graders at Verdugo Woodland School in Glendale, California, including two classes in their Japanese dual language program. I shared my book WHEN MAMMOTHS WALKED THE EARTH, which has been translated into Japanese, and my mammoth tooth--an exact copy of a real fossil tooth. 

Like elephants, mammoths had very large teeth, all of them molars and ideal for chewing the leaves, grass and other plant foods that they ate. 

 

 

We talked about birds and feathers and spread out our arms to measure our wingspans. I also read my book A ZEBRA'S WORLD and demonstrated how I make the cut paper art illustrations. At the end, the students had the chance to ask me questions. 

A Guide Dog Puppy, English and Japanese editions

Many thanks to the Assistance League of Glendale for sponsoring my visit.

FIFTY NIFTY PROJECTS FOR KIDS

Are you looking for something to do while school is out for summer vacation? At my website you can find FIFTY NIFTY PROJECTS that you can do in connection with reading my books. Most of the the projects use materials easily found at home or at school. They range from writing a pyramid poem to putting stripes on a zebra (cut paper art) to simple science experiments like finding out how icebergs affect sea level.

Go to My Books at my website to find more information about the books that inspired these projects. Many of the books are available as e-books that you can download from Amazon and other platforms.

Have fun!
Here are a few examples of the projects you can do:

Curlycue Snakes
(Read SNAKE or A DAY AND NIGHT IN THE DESERT)

Make a model of the Taj Mahal
(Read TAJ MAHAL)

Peanut Butter and Jelly Geology
(Read TRAPPED IN TAR or GLOBAL WARMING AND THE DINOSAURS)

Watching Wildlife Up Close at the Huntington Botanical Garden

Cut-paper art illustration from A Day and Night in the Desert

In my book, A Day and Night in the Desert, I illustrated a scene with a barrel cactus, a desert dwelling squirrel and a red-tailed hawk flying overhead. A sidebar reads: Antelope ground squirrels often climb barrel cacti to eat the fruit. No one knows how they keep from getting stuck on the cacti’s sharp spines.

Squirrel plucking ripe fruit from a barrel cactus

On my recent visit to the Huntington Botanical Garden in San Marino, California, I had the chance to observe this unusual behavior in real life. The cactus and succulent section of the garden has a large display of barrel cacti, and they were plump from recent rains and covered with ripe fruit. I watched a squirrel nimbly hopping up the cacti to harvest the fruit. The squirrel (a common grey squirrel) seemed to be able to balance on the spines and had no trouble reaching the fruit.
On the same page spread the main text of the book reads: A red-tailed hawk circles the sky. It is looking for something to eat. The squirrel sees the hawk and dashes to safety inside its burrow.
Rather amazingly, I got to witness this part of my story too. As my friend and I walked through the garden we had seen several red-tailed hawks soaring in the sky and perching in the trees overhead. Suddenly, one swooped down beside us and just ahead attacked an unsuspecting squirrel. We could hear the thud of the impact and the squirrel squealing. Luckily, it managed to escape.

When I research the information for my books I use all available sources including other books, the internet and talking with experts. But when I can see my subject with my own eyes it becomes part of my experience. In my books I hope to convey the same wonder of discovery.

Adding Value to School Visits with Workshops: in the Spring 2016 SCBWI Bulletin

Thanks to Alexis O'Neill for including me in her article in the Spring 2016 SCBWI Bulletin in the article in her column The Truth About School Visits: Adding Value with Workshops. My cut paper animal workshop is one of eight terrific workshops described by authors Dandi Daley Mackall, Joan Bransfield Graham, Barney Saltzberg, Mary Ann Fraser, Joanne Rocklin, April Halprin Wayland, and Alexis O'Neill that can be done as a supplementary activity when doing author visits at schools.
This is a great resource for authors, illustrators, teachers and librarians!

New PRINTS at My Etsy Shop: Rain Forest, Desert, Forest and Prairie

A Day and Night in the Rain Forest, Noon

I have just added eight new full size prints to my Etsy shop. Each one is a limited edition gallery quality print made from an  original cut-paper illustration I created for the books in the Caroline Arnold's Habitats series published by Picture Window Books (Capstone):  A DAY AND NIGHT IN THE RAIN FOREST, A DAY AND NIGHT IN THE DESERT, A DAY AND NIGHT IN THE FOREST, and A DAY AND NIGHT ON THE PRAIRIE. The quality of the scan is impressive. Even though the paper of the print is flat, it retains the three-dimensional quality of the layered paper of the original art. Each print is 10 1/4 inches by 20 inches with a one inch white border.
I will continue to add more art to my Etsy site as I have prints made of illustrations from the other books in the series. If you have a particular illustration that you would like to have a print of, please email me to let me know.
To see all of my prints and cards go to https://www.etsy.com/shop/CarolineArnoldArt .

A Day and Night in the Rain Forest, 6:00 a.m.

A Day and Night in the Desert, 6:00 a.m.

A Day and Night in the Desert, 3:00 a.m.

A Day and Night in the Forest, 6:00 p.m.

A Day and Night in the Forest, 3:00 a.m.

A Day and Night on the Prairie, 6:00 a.m.

Cut Paper Art Workshop with Fifth Graders at St. Timothy’s School, Los Angeles, CA

A week ago I conducted an art workshop with fifth grade students at St. Timothy’s Elementary School in Los Angeles, California, sharing some of the techniques I use when I am creating the illustrations for my own books.

Earlier in the year the students had written poems about animals. For the workshop they were asked to bring a printout of a photograph of the animal which they would use as a pattern for their cut-out art. The animal in the picture should be about 6-8 inches long and preferably a side (rather than a front) view. So the pictures needed to be expendable--either a Xerox copy of a picture in a book or other source or a picture of the animal printed from their computer.

The students then cut out the animal and traced around it on a piece of construction paper chosen to match the main color of their animal. They then cut out the animal, added details and chose a large piece of paper for the background.

I was amazed at the variety and creativity of the students’ pictures. Everyone had chosen a different animal so no two pictures were alike. Some had chosen to focus on just the head of the animal while others chose the whole animal and placed it in an environment. We had allotted an hour for the project. When the bell rang not everyone was finished although most had made a significant progress. They would have a chance to finish the following day.

Supplies needed for this project: animal picture, scissors, paper punch to make spots and eyes, glue sticks and pencils and a supply of 9 x 12 colored construction paper, especially blue, green and brown.