Book Pairing:

We’re pairing Eric Carle’s The Very Quiet Cricket and a colorful mixed-medium art project.

This activity is from our The Quiet Way Home post.

Supplies:

1. Turquoise construction paper (1 sheet)
2. Green (1/3 sheet)
3. Red, light blue, and gray construction paper scraps (Gray Moon, light blue stars, red circle eyes)
4. Black, brown, yellow, green, and white tempura paint
5. Spatula
6. Cricket template
7. White glue
8. Glitter glue
9. White tissue paper
10. Dot paints

Directions:

This is a multi-step project, but it is definitely worth the effort!

First, I handed out a square piece of white tissue and a mixture of green, brown, and orange dot paint.

The kids painted their tissue with dot paints and set them aside to dry.

I added a generous glob of black tempura paint.

The kids spread the paint with the spatula using side-by-side strokes.

We added a green construction paper strip to the bottom and smeared a little brown, green, and yellow tempura paint.

I added white glue dots all over their nighttime landscapes.

The kids added their moon and stars. (We added a little gray (white & black) tempura paint to our moon to give it that textured appearance).

Once their tissue paper dried, the kids ripped it up into tiny pieces.

They pasted their tissue paper pieces on their cricket templates.

I cut out their crickets and they added them to their pictures.

The kids added some glitter glue details to their crickets to give a little more dazzle.

They did an AMAZING job!