1st - 4th Grades
AASL V.A.1: Learners develop and satisfy personal curiosity by reading widely and in multiple formats
AASL V.B.2 Learners construct new knowledge by persisting through self-directed pursuits by tinkering and making.
AASL I.B.3 Learners engage with new knowledge by following a process that includes generating products that illustrate learning
2 class periods of 40 minutes each
This lesson was created by Tara Bova at Blanchard Elementary part of the Cape Girardeau Public School District,
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
In this lesson, students will explore the author and illustrator Terry Border. After reading one of his stories and learning about his life through a Google Slide students will then get a chance to recreate his style of illustrations.
Books Written by Terry Border:
Materials to present on Terry Border:
Students will have a greater understanding of a particular author and how they use their creativity in their work.
Students will create an illustration using different media
Start by introducing who Terry Border is, his style of writing and illustrating, how he got his start, and other important information. Make sure to highlight his unique style of illustrations.
Next, pick a book written by him to share with the class.
Before Reading
-Do a picture walk
-Have students identify what they noticed about the illustrations and how this relates to the information presented earlier.
During Reading
-Stop to point out some of the design elements in the illustrations (for example- Scaredy Snacks the hair from on Dr. Nuttenstein is from his cat's hair, Milk Goes to School all of the small elements in the classroom are made by him by hand)
-Point out that he photographs each frame. The elements are miniature sculptures and he chooses this style because it allows for shadows.
-Stop to discuss the puns as this is a signature to Terry Border's writing and artistic style
After Reading
- Discuss what makes the illustrations more interesting.
-Have the students work in pairs to discuss ideas for their own food puns and how they could illustrate it.
Then, pull up an online program like Canva or Google Slides. Show students how to create their own food style of characters for their Terry Border illustrations, Challenge students to create the pun that they previously created with their partner.
Once students are done creating their illustrations walk around to informally assess that they were able to:
-Students can create a food character instead of a pun.
-Students could color a Terry Border style of image, and then assess that they were able to portray the pun.
-Students can turn their illustration into their own book cover for a Terry Border style of book.
