Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Art-Room-Friendly Books

First I just want to say thank you to those of you who responded to my last question! I really appreciate your input, and I hope to get even more! I also wanted to let everyone know I have been researching and gathering more ideas and tips on keeping the art room green. I will post these sometime before our school year starts back up in August.

My next question is a fun one - one I bet teachers, parents, and students alike will have no trouble answering:
What are your favorite books for the art room? Whether they're good stories with beautiful illustrations, fictional, fun tales about kid artists or imaginary events, historical accounts of artists and art movements, books on art elements and concepts, or even just great messages about how our students should treat one another - I'd love to know what books are a must-have for you! And for that matter, what are your favorite movies for the art room?

I'll go ahead right now and tell you my all-time favorite: Ish by Peter Reynolds.
It's sweet, authentic, and has a great message about inspiration, encouragement, confidence and self-acceptance. I read it every year to every grade on the first or second day of class. Everyone loves it. I think we've all had experiences at some point in our lives that help us relate to every character in the book. "Ish" has become a regular part of our classroom vocabulary.
Looking forward to your comments (I'm sure we'll have some common favorites!)

6 comments:

Sue said...

Congratualtions on getting married.
I hope that you have a great summer.
Thanks for all the inspiration your blog has given me this year. looking forward to seeing how inspired you will be next semester!
Sue
Victoria
Australia

Dana Klusener said...

Katie, I use lots of picture books in my 5th grade American History classroom. One of my favorite authors who has beautiful art work is Deborah Hopkinson (www.deborahhopkinson.com) who wrote "Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt," "Apples to Oregon," "Under the Quilt of Night," and "Abe Lincoln Crosses A Creek," as well as many others.
An author who tells a wonderful story that gets the kids thinking as well as having wonderful art is Patricia Polacco (www.patriciapolocco.com). She is the author of my favorite book, "Pink and Say," as well as "Thank You, Mr. Falker," "My Ol' Man," and "Rechenka's Eggs." She has many other books as well.
There are LOTS of picture books based on historic fiction, and I always keep LOTS in my room!

Spadazzle said...

I just bought a bunch of those "Getting to Know the Worlds Greatest Artists" and "Smart About Art" books, I also have some artist coloring books that I got online.

TeachKidsArt said...

"The Dot" is another wonderful book by Peter Reynolds. I read it to my K students every year. I also love his book, "The North Star", which I read to my 6th graders.

pink and green mama MaryLea said...

"The Dot", "When Cats Dream", "Roberto the Insect Architect" are great books for an elementary art classroom. I also had lots of art reproduction post cards, calendar pages, a ton of examples of architecture from all cultures for my block center aka the Architecture Corner. Fondly,MaryLea (aka Pink and Green Mama)

Beth said...

I just bought the books "ish", "the dot", and "Pezzettino". I LOVE "ish". I haven't actually used any of them in class yet, though. The books I've enjoyed so far are "Mouse Paint" and "Color Dance."