It's not what you think, but a fortuitous meeting of a classic storybook and enough scratch-art paper left at the end of the school year for a really fun project. Remembering this stash in the middle of the night was great luck.
When I couldn't find
The Camel Who Took A Walk at my libraries, I bought a used copy online. Never reading this favorite to Mr. Short Stack was too sad a future for this Grancy.*
Each of the art groups, ages 3-4, 5-6, and 7-9 were captured in the suspense of Jack Tworkov's story and Roger Duvoisin's illustrations. The camel is walking slowly and gracefully on a road that divides the forest in half just as the dark of night is turning the slightest blue and tinges of pink. The camel is walking from the horizon toward the foreground where a tiger, a monkey, yes, a squirrel, and a small bird wait with big plans. The forest is filled with line patterns just made for scratch art drawing. The book is made for teaching art!
What happens? I won't tell what happens in the story, but what happened in the art classes was magical. Entranced by the story and the unusual medium, the students worked almost silently on the drawings. That right there is a miracle. No one poked anybody with the scratch drawing stick. Another miracle.
The younger groups used color scratch art papers. The oldest group concentrated on using pattern in their drawings on black and white scratch art paper. I wish I had photos of the results, but the kids were too excited to take their art home.
Way back when cars had fins, we made our own scratch art paper by coloring a sheet of paper with crayons, and then coloring over that with black crayon. It was slow and messy. You can try coloring a sheet of paper, and then painting it with a couple coats of black acrylic. Toothpicks work okay, but longer canape spears work better as scratch tools.
A pack of scratch art paper is a great purchase for long, hot summer afternoons, with parental rationing. Without rationing, kids can and will destroy every sheet in the package in about three minutes with their fingernails.
Also in the middle of the night I remembered the package of sunprint photo paper my son formerly known as the Woolly Mammoth (SFKWM) gave me for Christmas. How can I make sunprints of the vintage laces and fabrics? Ooh! Sounds like a summer afternoon projects.
Sleep well. Write yourself this note. Put it in the dental floss drawer in your bathroom. Then
send your camel to bed:
Dromedary = one hump. Bactrian = two humps.
Don't let it be forgot that once there was a spot for
one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot.
*A list of books this Grancy absolutely must have a chance to read aloud to Mr. Short Stack and his future cousins. I guess I better take care of myself and stick around for awhile:
Owl Babies, by Martin Waddell
Caps For Sale, by Esphyr Slobodkina
Mouse Paint, by Ellen Stoll Walsh
Circle Dogs, by Kevin Henkes and Dan Yaccarino
The Color Kittens, by Margaret Wise Brown
The Night Worker, by Kate Banks and Georg Hallensleben
Harry the Dirty Dog, by Gene Zion
The Camel Who Took A Walk, by Jack Tworkov and Roger Duvoisin
The Piggy in the Puddle, by Charlotte Pomerantz
Make Way for Ducklings, by Robert McCloskey
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, by Virginia Burton
The Pout-Pout Fish, by Deborah Diesen
Stop That Pickle, by Peter Armour
Pierre, by Maurice Sendak
Go Dog, Go!, by P. D. Eastman
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, by Dr. Seuss
Pussywillow, by Margaret Wise Brown
The Tale of Custard the Dragon, by Ogden Nash
Andy and the Lion, by James Daugherty
A Fish Out of Water, by Helen Palmer
The Monkey and the Crocodile, by Paul Galdone
Coyote and the Laughing Butterflies, by Harriet Peck Taylor
Owl Moon, by Jane Yolen
"What Was I Scared Of?", by Dr. Seuss
Jumanji, by Chris Van Allsburg
If I Ran the Circus, by Dr. Seuss
The Gifts of Wali Dad, by Aaron Shepard
Farmer Boy, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Just So Stories, by Rudyard Kipling
© 2013 Nancy L. Ruder
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