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This summer, our library presented its annual children’s summer reading program. After reading for 10, 15, and 25 hours, children could win prizes such as passes to a local water park or ice skating rink, free ice cream from Chick-fil-A, and more. Although it didn’t sound like a lot of time, we got a late start, and those first 10 hours of picture books for my youngest added up to about 80 books we had to read! Every time we went to the library, I felt as if I was clearing a lot of their shelf space. While I tried to find books we hadn’t read before, I came across some favorites as well, on of which was What’s Going On In There? By Geoffrey Grahn.

In this book, things are not always as they appear. In each double-page spread, the pages on the left are used for the text, and the pages on the right for the illustrations. There you’ll find a building with windows, with a silhouette of a person, animal, or object in each window. The fun, then, is to guess what’s going on — to guess what the people or animals are doing. With a turn of the page, the reader discovers what’s really going on, and it’s usually not what you were thinking.  What looks like people pulling saltwater taffy is really astronauts preparing to launch their rocket; what appears to be students taking a test is actually a swimming class.

This book is a fun one for all ages. Younger children (and parents!) will be surprised by the revelations, and older children will have fun guessing. The author/illustrator has even provided the reader with some clues: look closely at the outside of the buildings where you see the silhouettes for hints of what’s inside.

My son Luke is in a K-5/First Grade class in our home school co-op. The curriculum the class is using is Five in a Row by Jane Lambert; this curriculum centers math, science, social studies, and art lessons around classic picture books. Recently, we read The Glorious Flight by Alice and Martin Provensen, which describes the early attempts of Louis Bleriot to build and fly an airplane. Though our art activity wasn’t listed in Five in a Row, it worked well with the class. Here’s what we did:

Supplies:

• Watercolor Paper (inexpensive watercolor paper is fine)
• Cardboard (a little larger than the watercolor paper; one piece per student)
• Masking tape
• Pencils
• Watercolor paints – blue and green (in tubes or pan sets)
• Styrofoam plates (if using paints in tubes)
• One brush per child
• Napkins or paper towel (to clean the brushes)
• Cotton balls or poly fiberfill
• Crayons
• Scissors
• White school glue
• Glue sticks
• Coloring page of a small airplane

Before you begin, tape a piece of watercolor paper to each piece of cardboard. This way, if you’re student enjoys applying water or watery paint to the paper, the edges will stay down even though the paper might buckle.

Have each student draw a horizon line, marking where the sky will end and the ground begin. Put this line low on your paper — you’ll want a lot of sky showing for this picture.

Give each student a small amount of blue paint. If you’re using watercolors in tubes, give each child a Styrofoam plate for a palette. Place the blue paint on the plate. If you’re using a regular pan set of paints, instruct the children to co

Next, give each student a small amount of green paint. Instruct them to paint the land green.

While the paint is drying, provide the children with a picture of a plane from a coloring page. You can find images to use on the Internet. You might even print off several different planes and let the children choose their favorite. Have the children color their planes with crayons and then cut them out.

By the time the students are finished coloring, the paint on their papers should be dry.  Use the white school glue to attach cotton balls or poly fiberfill on the sky. These are the clouds.

Now everything is ready for the plane!  Have the children glue their planes to the sky they just created.

Place the finished artwork where everyone can see — and enjoy!