Put Me In The Zoo - Craft

One of my favorite stories, when I was a child, was Robert Lopshire's Put Me in the Zoo. I asked to hear it so often, my mother can't stand the sight of it, even now.

I, on the other hand, still love it, and am thrilled to have children, who love it too, and find it as visually appealing, as I do.

As a book about colors, it's really targeted at babies, and toddlers. But, as an easy reader, escorts them into Kindergarten. It has been a first reader, for all of my children.

And, I wanted to be sure to do a stART (story + ART) project with it, before my own children outgrow it completely. My two youngest were happy to comply.

One of their favorite parts of the story, is when the animal, showing off his spots, puts them on the little boy, and girl, he is trying to impress. The little girl, in her starched, 1950's dress, and perfectly pulled up, knee socks, is not pleased, to find her pretty clothes covered in spots. That always makes the children giggle, especially since they know, the spots will be gone by the next page.

We decided to put move some spots around ourselves, thanks to optical illusion instructions, from Roy Richards (see yesterday's post, for an explanation of that). I drew a line in the middle of a piece of paper, and the girls drew pictures of themselves, looking unhappy, on one side...


...and dots on the other.


Then, when we placed a piece of cardboard on the line, and pressed our noses to the board, while looking at the pictures, so it appeared the dots were on the pictures. Despite the photograph below, I found this worked the best, by placing the picture on the floor, so the girls could get above them, and look straight down on them.


And, of course, when we lifted our faces back up, the dots went back where they belonged - just like in the book.


One of the tricks for this illusion, is both the drawing, and the dots, need to be close to the line. C drew hers too far apart. But, we were able to correct the problem by folding the middle of the paper, to bring her sketch, closer to her spots.

You can find more story stretching arts, and crafts, at this week's stART (story + ART) link-up, at A Mommy's Adventures.

It's great to be a homeschooler.