book-inspired art: Perfect Square

 

One of the books Caleb picked out at the library this week was Perfect Square by Michael Hall.  Turns out it's a really cool book, and a great jumping-off point for some art projects.  All you need is some construction paper, scissors, a hole punch, and a glue stick!

In the book, a square is cut, ripped, wrinkled, etc. in order to make other things.  We used the pictures in the book as a guide, but I reminded Caleb that his didn't have to look exactly like what we saw in the book.

See his dinosaur supervising?

The first object was a fountain...I drew lines on the square as a guide for Caleb and his scissors, and I helped him with the hole punching since he couldn't quite get enough grip on our hole punch to do it himself (note to self....find one that a kid can use!).

Next came a garden (this one was fun...all Caleb had to do was rip the square up into little pieces!).

Then a park (by ripping the square into strips)...he ended up doing this one by himself since his little brother needed a diaper change right then!

Then a bridge (the square was "shattered" in this case).  We were the most creative with this one since the bridge in the book was kind of intricate!

Then a river (Mommy got her pinking shears for this one!).

And finally, a mountain (lots of fun since we got to crumble up the square!).

Caleb had a lot of fun with this book.  It's just cool that a random choice he made at the library led to a good hour of creative fun (as well as an opportunity to work on his cutting and gluing skills!).