Today's Classroom Activities :

A Salute to Eric Carle

Eric Carle was born on June 25, 1929. Have your students read their favorite books by this author. Make a graph of their favorites books. There are some great lesson ideas for The Hungry Caterpillar and The Grouchy Lady Bug at this website.

The lonely firefly
Fireflies have been used as a metaphor for an important aspect of the human condition, loneliness, most memorably in The Very Lonely Firefly by Eric Carle (Philomel, 1995). In this book, the author uses a common firefly for an insightful look into belonging. His firefly starts its life's journey at night, alone, searching for companionship. While sending out beacons of intermittent light, the firefly searches for others to become whole. It encounters a variety of lights that it initially mistakes for other fireflies – a lightbulb, a candle, a flashlight, a lantern, the bright night eyes of a dog, cat and owl, car headlights and fireworks. The final pages are covered with many fireflies, and the firefly is lonely no more.

Some other books by Eric Carle that pair beautiful artwork with important developmental themes are The Very Busy Spider (Philomel, 1985) (Work) and The Very Quiet Cricket (Philomel, 1990) (Love). These books simplify difficult concepts for children to understand along with artwork that is youthful and exuberant.

Also visit Eric Carle's site at www.eric-carle.com and The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art at www.picturebookart.org.