"Tearing Paper is Hard Mr. Lawniczak"

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In this lesson I read the book "Fredrick" by Leo Lionni. The book talks about a family of mice that get ready for the long winter soon to come. For this reason alone I thought it was a good book and lesson possibility. I love Lionni's illustrations, he using nothing but construction paper in the book. In an attempt to work on the Kindergartners fine motor skills I decided to copy the book and create our own Fredrick's. The students started by tearing a large oval shape from a rectangle piece of paper. This was by far the hardest part of this lesson. After this all of the accessories followed and were glued on to the white paper. The lesson went well, but I taught it step-by-step and it drove me crazy! I ended up with a bunch of carbon copy student art and I didn't find that there was enough free thought and creativity. The lesson is a great idea and has great potential... just don't teach it like I did if you pride individuality and free thought!

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