A Resource Guide For Educators

December 14, 2013-February 9, 2014 •

Use this Educator’s Guide to: Familiarize students with the content and themes of the exhibit.

Incorporate background information, suggested activities and resources into lesson plans that corresponds with curriculum benchmarks.

Exhibition supported by:

Provide information for chaperones to use during the visit.

KIA Tours supported by: Harold and Grace Upjohn Foundation Beim Foundation

The Harold and Grace Upjohn Foundation

Kalamazoo Institute of Arts • 314 S. Park Street • Kalamazoo, MI 49007 • 269/349-7775 • www.kiarts.org

Fantastic Rumpus: 50 Years of Children’s Book Illustrations Table of Contents Museum Visit 101: a Checklist…..……….…………………...…………………...………..………3 KIA Museum Manners and How to be a Great Chaperone ..……………….…...………..…..….4 Rumpus Exhibit Content and Context...…….…………………………...…....……………....……5 Children’s Literature Timeline...……………………………….……………...…………...……..…6 Educational Activities and Handouts………………………….…………………….……………...7 Glossary……………………………………………………….……………………..…....………….8 Resources: Books, DVDs, and Websites for Teachers and Students……………..…………..…..8

Short on time before the visit? 1) Read over the Museum Manners and How to Be a Great Chaperone sections to prepare students and chaperones for their visit. 2) Read one of the books listed on page 5 to your class and do one of the activities on page 6. 3) Check out Mo Willems’ website! www.mowillems.com for lots of Pigeon and Knuffle Bunny related fun! 4) Danny Schnitzlein’s lesson plans for The Monster Who Ate My Peas have tons of curriculum connections. http:// www.dannyschnitzlein.com/Lesson% 20Plans.htm

Keep in mind…

Matt Faulkner, “I Can’t Watch!” From The Amazing Voyage of Jackie Grace, watercolor, pen and ink, Courtesy of the Artist



Observing, discussing, and interpreting works of art instructs students’ understanding of society and culture.



Looking at art objects increases visual literacy and the ability to articulate meaning.

Acknowledgements This resource guide was created by Intern Katherine Ransbottom and the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts Museum Education Department. Fantastic Rumpus: 50 Years of Children’s Book Illustrations was organized by the Appleton Museum of Art of the College of Central Florida, Ocala, Florida. This guide’s educational activities and visiting the Fantastic Rumpus exhibition satisfy the K-5th grade Literacy Grade Level Content Expectations, content standards, and benchmarks for the state of Michigan. 2

Museum Visit 101: A Checklist Before the Visit (2-3 weeks): □ Recruit chaperones! One adult is required for every 10 • students Please share the enclosed How to be a Great Chaperone handout with your adult volunteers so they know what will be expected of them. • □ Transportation! Groups must arrange their own transportation. Ask us about busing stipends. □ Name Tags! It is so helpful when docents and museum • staff can call each student by name. Use large, bold printed letters. □ Pre-visit student preparation!





Try to visit the KIA to familiarize yourself with the museum’s layout, including restrooms, classrooms, etc. • Note where the exhibitions are located. A personal visit is crucial if you have any concerns about exhibition or tour content. Please call 349-7775, x 3162 for an appointment with KIA staff.

Read through the pre-visit/post-visit activities listed in this packet and decide which are best suited for your students. Work with students on completing any assignments before visit. Review Museum Manners. Please inform the Museum Education staff if your group has an assignment or will need extra time in the galleries following their tour. Familiarize your chaperones with any assignments so they can assist as needed. Please bring the proper materials for students to complete your assignment: pencils only and paper with something hard to write on. Students may sit on the floor or stools can be made available with advance notice.

Day of Visit Checklist □ Name Tags! Have them? Are your students divided into the number of groups as specified on the tour confirmation? □ Chaperones! Make copies of How to be a Great Chaperone.

□ Be early birds! Please arrive at the South St. entrance at least 5 minutes before your scheduled tour time and have students organized into the proper number of tour groups. A docent or KIA staff member will greet your group. Each tour group will be assigned a docent and then head into the galleries.

□ Camera? You may take photos outside or in the lobby. Photography is not allowed in the galleries.

□ Oops! We’re late! Please call the main desk KIA at 269/349-7775 if you will be late. As groups may be □ Gallery Shop! Remind students that the KIA Gallery Shop scheduled back to back, a late arrival could shorten your is not included as part of the visit. visit. Docents will wait no more than 20 minutes. After that time we reserve the right to cancel or shorten your tour. □ Museum Manners! Please review one more time. □ Coats, backpacks, umbrellas and roller shoes are not permitted in the galleries. Please leave them on the bus, weather permitting, or in bins located in the lobby.

Don’t forget! Recruit chaperones, review Museum Manners, make Name Tags!

After the Tour □ Discuss the tour with your students. Round out the experience with some post visit activities. □ Evaluate! Fill out the Tour Evaluation form and return in the envelope provided. Let us know what you thought!

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How to be a Great Chaperone To be a great chaperone, you don’t need any special knowledge—just common sense and a willingness to jump in and get involved. Here are a few tips to make this visit successful: •

Introduce yourself to your group and your docent (tour guide).

• Stay with your group during the tour, listen to the conversation and be ready to assist the teachers and docent. •

Follow and help remind students of the KIA’s Museum Manners.



Please turn off cell phones or put on silent mode

Classes tour in small groups of 10 students. Each group is led by a museum docent, a specially trained volunteer tour guide. As tours move through the museum, chaperones help keep the group together. They remind students of their Museum Manners if needed and are good role models during the tour. Chaperones are ready to help the docent if asked. Thanks for being part of your group’s guided tour. Your participation will help make your school’s visit to the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts fun and educational. We invite you and your family to visit the KIA again!

KIA Museum Manners 1. Please do not touch any of the art! It is fragile and the oils on your fingers (even if your hands look clean) will make the work of art dirty. If everyone touched, the art would be ruined, and no one would be able to enjoy it. We want it to last as long as possible. 2. Please walk in the museum. We do not want you or the art to get hurt. 3. Use quiet voices during your tour; other people are trying to enjoy their visit too. 4. Stay with your group. Be ready to look carefully and think about what you see. Your docent will ask you to share your ideas about the works of art. 5. Gum, food and drinks are not allowed in the galleries because spills could damage the works of art. 6. Please do not lean on walls/cases as you might lean into a work of art or mark the walls.

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Fantastic Rumpus: Content and Context Fantastic Rumpus: 50 Years of Children’s Book Illustration contains over 100 illustrations from 30 well-known children’s book illustrators. This exhibition explores four groundbreaking ways in which the landscape of children’s literature has developed in the 50 years. The terrain has changed from the tidy, manicured worlds of Dick and Jane readers and Golden Books.

Peter McCarty, "Arrgh," said the monster. "Draw me a sandwich. I'm hungry." from Jeremy Draws a Monster, 2009, pen and ink on paper. Henry Holt & Co., publisher

Theme 1: Real Kids Since the early 1960s, children’s emotions and behavior are being treated more honestly, as demonstrated by works in the first section of the exhibition. Through Molly Bang’s When Sophie Gets Angry and David Shannon’s No, David!, children can identify with characters experiencing familiar frustrations and anxieties of childhood. These books explore all those things we know to be true to life about our kids, including the tantrums, pouting, mayhem, tears, joy, love, and glee.

Theme 2: Fantasy Worlds The second theme presents artists who transform the realistic into the fantastic. Within a wondrous or absurd revision of reality, disturbing emotional situations can be resolved to a child’s satisfaction. Works on view will reveal vividly fantastic worlds from the imaginations of Shaun Tan, Ed Young, Peter Sis, Eric Rohmann, and Bill Thomson. Theme 3: Wild Things Visitors will see how monsters of all shapes and sizes--encompassing the frightening and the ridiculous--play a role in many of these fantasies and explorations of human emotions. Numerous beasties and ghoulies will make visitors shiver and giggle. The exhibition includes Howard McWilliam’s imagined monsters interviewing for a position “under the bed,” Ed Emberley’s boldly designed Big Green Monster, and Peter McCarty’s dapper, pink-hatted monster driving a grey convertible. Theme 4: Unique Design The fourth innovation addressed in the exhibition is the illustrator’s handling of text in relation to image. Words are no longer safely sequestered at the foot of the page, but interact in harmony with the image for dramatic effect in telling the story. Text frames and dialogue balloons guide readers through the narrative David Wiesner’s The Three Pigs, who fold up a page of their story into a paper airplane and fly away to other fairy tales. Meanwhile, the intricate pop-up constructions of Robert Sabuda unite actual paper folding with book design. —Exhibition description from The Appleton Museum of Art, College of Central Florida.

Books featured in Fantastic Rumpus: 50 Years of Children’s Book Illustrations Molly Bang, When Sophie Gets Angry—Really, Really Angry; The Paper Crane Marvin Bileck, Thimbledon Down Remy Charlip, Arm in Arm; Thirteen R. Gregory Christie, Yesterday I had the Blues Leo and Diane Dillon, Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears Richard Egielski, Hey Al; Sleepless Little Vampire; Good Morning Spread Ed Emberley. Go Away, Big Green Monster ; There Was an Old Monster Matt Faulkner. Trick or Treat on Monster Street, The Monster Who Ate My Peas; The Moonclock; The Amazing Voyage of Jackie Grace Emily Gravett. The Rabbit Problem Gail E. Haley. Jack and The Bean Tree; Jack and the Fire Dragon; My Father’s Beast; A Story, A Story; Birdsong, Sea Tale. Edward Hemingway. Bump in the Night. Doug Keith. The Bored Book Barbara Lehman. The Red Book; Rainstorm; Trainstop; The Museum Trip

David McCauley, Black and White. Peter McCarty, Jeremy Draws a Monster, Monster Returns Howard McWilliam. I Need My Monster Jerry Pinkney, Going Somewhere Special Courtney Pippin-Mather. Maya was Grumpy Chris Raschka. Sourpuss and Sweetie Pie Eric Rohmann. The Cinder-Eyed Cats Robert Sabuda. Brooklyn Pop Ups Brian Selznick. The Invention of Hugo Cabret David Shannon. No David!; How I Became a Pirate Marc Simont. No More Monsters for Me! Shaun Tan. The Red Tree. Bill Thomson. Chalk. Christa Unzner. Miranda’s Ghosts by Udo Weigelt; The Blue Monster by Ingrid Ostheeren. Mo Willems. Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale; Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity; Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! Don Wood. Into the Volcano. Ed Young. Lon Po Po. 5

Timeline of Children’s Literature and Illustrations Children’s literature was not prominent in the form that we recognize today until the mid-eighteenth century. Use this timeline to follow the progression of children’s literature throughout the centuries.

1700 and before



Mid-1700





Early 1800

• •

Books directed towards children were for religious instruction and to teach proper behavior.

Special attention to the distinctive needs of children in both play and education began. Interest in children’s literature was growing, Illustrators were still largely anonymous Pop-up book with movable parts started to appear.

Mid to late 19th century

• Popular children’s literature: Alice in Wonderland, Treasure Island, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn • Emergence of the picture book • Illustrations were at least as important as the text. Artists were no longer anonymous.

20th century

• Increased literacy and improved printing made children’s books more commonplace. • Color printing • Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) and Maurice Sendak forever altered the children’s literature landscape.

21st century



Children’s literature today is comparable to popular adult literature in its range and diversity of genres.

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Pre or Post-Visit Educational Activities Activity: What do the images say? On a daily basis we are presented with a steady stream of imagery designed to shape our decisions and direct our attention. If we want our children to be intelligent and discerning consumers of visual information, we need to teach them how to read visual compositions for meaning when reading and take the time to carefully examine what the images have to say; • Describe what you see. • Imagine the events of the story and guess what might happen next. • Create a story based on the image. • Discuss color, lines, objects and shapes with younger children. (Adapted from PBS Kids; http://www.pbs.org/parents/education/reading-language/reading-tips/read-illustrations-toimprove-literacy-skills/ ) Visual Literacy Discussion Activity: Read a book from one of the illustrators in the exhibition. Read it once without showing the illustrations and one time with showing the illustrations. Ask students to explain how their experience was enhanced or changed by seeing the illustrations. How are the illustrations different from what they had imagined? Visual Literacy Writing Activity: Write a story using an image as a prompt. Look at these 4 choices of images from the KIA Collection and write a story or poem about one of them. Here’s the link to look at the images and information on how your students can submit their writing on-line. http://www.kiarts.org/page.php?page_id=693 . Visual Literacy Making Activity: Using Brian Selznick’s graphic novel, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, as a model, have the compose a story entirely with a series of pictures. Real Kids and Emotions Activity Many of these books explore the very real range of emotions that kids experience. Choose a book like Molly Bang’s When Sophie was Really, Really Angry. Read the book to students and have them talk about or write about a time when they were really angry, sad, or frustrated. They can create a picture of their face that matches their feelings. Unique Design Activity: Using a story of your own or one of the books in the exhibition, make your own pop-up book- http://wp.robertsabuda.com/make-your-own-pop-ups/ Fantasy Worlds Activity: Using whatever art supplies are available, have students create their own fantasy worlds; a place they would want to go if they could. Then they should write about their world: what is in it, why would they want to go there, etc. Wild Things Activity: Divide students into small groups of 3. Provide a large 11x17 piece of paper divided into 3 horizontal sections. Have one child start the drawing by creating the head of a monster in the top 1/3 of the paper. Then the child folds their drawing behind so that the next child can’t see what he/she drew. The 2nd child draws the body of the monster in the middle section and then folds his/her drawing underneath revealing the last section which the 3rd child will use to draw the monster’s legs and feet. Then open the paper to see the entire work of art. Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus and Knuffle Bunny Activities and Resources www.mowillems.com: games, activities and educator’s packets for Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, Knuffle Bunny www.hyperionbooksforchildren.com: A downloadable guide to Mo Willems’ Pigeon books and Knuffle Bunny Learn more about Mo Willems at www.bookpage.com/0307bp/meet_mo_willems.html http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Knuffle-Bunny-A-Book-Series-Study-222697 Other cool lesson plans: The Monster Who Ate My Peas by Danny Schnitzlein and Matt Faulkner http://www.dannyschnitzlein.com/Lesson% 20Plans.htm Jeremy Draws a Monster by Peter McCarty http://www.k6art.com/tag/jeremy-draws-a-monster/ or http:// ourartlately.blogspot.com/2011/09/organic-shape-monsters.html 7

Glossary of Art Terms Art Elements

The basic components used by the artist when producing works of art–color, value, line, shape, form, texture, and space.

Abstract

This style of art does not show objects realistically. Abstract artists sometimes simplify or exaggerate shapes and colors. If the art work is totally abstract—doesn’t resemble anything in the natural world—it is called nonrepresentational or nonobjective.

Balance

A sense of stability, sometimes symmetry, established by the way forms, lines and colors are placed within a painting.

Color

What the eye sees when light is reflected from it. Hue is the color in its most intense form. Value refers to the differences in hue ranging from the lightest to darkest. Primary colors (red, blue, yellow) cannot be produced by mixing other colors together. Secondary colors (orange, violet, green) are created by mixing primary colors.

Composition

The way shapes, color, line, space, mass and objects are arranged and organized in a work of art.

Docent

From the Latin word docere, meaning to teach. Docents are specially trained volunteer museum guides.

Form

Shape with three dimensions—height, width, and depth.

Line

The path of a moving point. It can be vertical, horizontal, diagonal, curved, angular, zigzag, bent, straight, interrupted, thick, thin.

Medium (media)

The materials used to create a work of art.

Print

1) A design or picture transferred from an engraved plate, wood block, lithographic stone, or other medium. 2) A photographic image transferred to paper or a similar surface, usually from a negative.

Realistic

The artist tries to depict objects as they are seen.

Space

Actual (open air around sculpture or architecture) or implied (represented by control of size, color, overlapping).

Texture

Surface treatment ranging from very smooth to quite rough. It can be real or implied.

Value

The gradual change of lightness to darkness, white to black, used to suggest roundness or depth.

Additional Resources Books and Articles for Research: Heller, Steven. Why do kids’ books matter? Here, Look. The Atlantic. July 5, 2013. http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/ archive/2013/07/why-do-kids-books-matter-here-look/277488/ Activity Guides: Make Your Own Pop-up http://wp.robertsabuda.com/make-your-own-pop-ups/ PBS Kids Reading Activities http://www.pbs.org/parents/education/reading-language/reading-activities/ Willems, Mo. Don’t Let the Pigeon Finish This Activity Book, Hyperion Books for Children, NY, 2012. Willems, Mo. Knuffle Bunny: Teacher’s Guide and The Pigeon Teacher’s Guide.www.hyperionbooksforchildren.com Websites: Picturing Childhood: Illustrated Children’s books from University of California Collections, 1550-1990 http:// unitproj.library.ucla.edu/special/childhood/pictur.htm 8