Pistes d'exploration

Talk about doodling and how you can use your imagination to draw different things.

Make a line with a marker and create a drawing around it. Add (two) comments.

Create an animal or monster with your classmates, with each of you adding a line to a joint picture. Make a class big book about this animal or monster.

Enrich a sentence by adding adjectives, adverbs and phrases to a simple sentence. For example, The boy is drawing becomes The little boy is drawing a picture which in turn becomes The little boy dressed in blue is drawing a picture of an elephant.

Make a line with a marker and create a drawing around it. Add (two) comments.

Discuss why we can sometimes speak up quite easily and sometimes we’re not sure what to say. Think of a time this has happened to you and try to figure out why.

Enrich a sentence by adding adjectives, adverbs and phrases to a simple sentence. For example, The boy is drawing becomes The little boy is drawing a picture which in turn becomes The little boy dressed in blue is drawing a picture of an elephant.

In pairs, one student draws a line while the other describes the line progression (e.g. “Draw a straight line, now turn left, make a curve, go to the top...).

Beautiful Oops!, Harold and the Purple Crayon

Mots-clés

Picture book , creativity , drawing , imagination , lift-the-flap books , line (drawing) , stories in rhyme

Commentaire descriptif

With the help of imaginative line art and lift-the-flap production, this books takes beginning readers on a journey about creativity and the wonders of transformation. The story begins with just a few words at a time, over several pages: “Andrew was a doodle boy. He drew … and drew … and drew. Andrew never knew … what would happen … when he began.” New readers will appreciate their quick progress through the book. Each spread offers a hidden surprise, revealing the transformations Andrew’s doodles undergo, while adding another piece to the story. Suspense combines with clarity of image and rhythm of language, to make this book ideal for reading to a group. The simple and charming doodles are mostly represented in black lines, while Andrew stands out in a bright striped T-shirt with a pencil behind his ear. The cartoon aesthetic of both Andrew and his doodles will appeal to children. Toward the final pages, Andrew’s doodling fills out as he creates a night sky filled with stars. His dark sky grows and changes form, because “night draws near, as it always does.” Young readers will appreciate Andrew’s triumphant final charge to bedtime, on his night-sky dragon, pencil raised high: “more to draw tomorrow.”