Ezra Jack Keats

Today is Ezra Jack Keats's birthday, so as part of our unit on dogs, we read Whistle for Willie. Jack loves the books about Peter, and I think this one may be his favorite since it includes Peter's dog.

I got this biography at a recent library sale, so we looked through to see some different samples of his illustrations. After that, we tried our hands at a picture similar to the ones in Whistle for Willie.

First, we painted backgrounds.

Next we added some cut outs of animals and objects.

This is Jack's final picture: three dogs, their blanket and ball, a house, and a fence.

We also read Kitten for a Day, another Ezra Jack Keats book about a puppy who decides to be a kitten for a day. We got these kitten and puppy puppets from Rainbow Resource and the kitten puppet looks just like one of the kittens in the book, so Jack decided to use the puppets to act it out.

In the course of my weekend of organizing, I found an extra copy of Whistle for Willie, so if you would like me to send you a copy, leave a comment on this post by midnight Sunday. I'll draw a winner and send it out to you next week!