Postcards from a Book

This is a great activity to use at an Artistic Literature Response Center. It is best used to accompany stories read as part of a literature theme because it requires gathering newspaper, magazine or internet photographs. The broader the topic the easier it will be to collect the materials. This lesson is based on Dad, Jackie and Me by Myron Ulberg as a part of a baseball literature theme. It is easily adapted to other baseball books.

Objective:

It is a tradition to send a postcard to someone when you go on trip in order to share your experience. With this project students will share “a trip into a book” by creating a photomontage postcard about the story. The lesson combines literature response with artistic expression. The book lends itself to this type of literature response because parts of the book’s illustrations utilize old newspaper clippings and the characters in the story make a scrap book.

Photomontage- real images cut from 2 or more photos and placed together to create the illusion of reality. Wikipedia has an excellent article describing this art form, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photomontage.  Another site for the history of this art form is http://www.cutandpaste.info.

Materials

A copy of the book Dad, Jackie and Me by Myron Ulberg

Examples of photomontage

Photographs and pictures of baseball and Jackie Robinson that can be cut

Newspapers and magazines for cutting

Stickers or scrapbook art related to baseball

Various colors of construction paper

Blank postcards or large note cards

Glue

Scissors

Before You Begin

Read aloud the story Dad, Jackie, and Me or have older students read it to themselves. Discuss who Jackie Robison was and explain that he was a famous baseball player fifty years ago. Make a chart with the key aspects of the story like baseball, uniforms, fathers and sons, dirt, sliding, being deaf, the Dodgers, New York City and any others the children are able to find.

Show students some examples of photomontage. You can create an example or print some from the internet. Explain that photomontage is a form of collage where you cut and paste photographs to create an image that explains what the topic is about. In this case the photomontage will represent the theme, characters and setting of the book. Explain to students that the goal of the postcard is to make someone else want to read the book or “take a trip into the story.”

Making the Project

At your artistic response center place an example of the project, a copy of the book, the list of important aspects of the book and the materials listed above. Each child will need a blank postcard. Tell students to search through materials provided and cut out images and letters for their postcard. Once they have the images selected then they will need to spend time arranging the images on the postcard. After the design has been laid out then students will glue the images and letters onto the postcard. Remind them to try to fill in any large blank spaces or use colored construction paper behind the images. When the postcards are done, color copy them and give them to the students to send to friends encouraging them to read the book. Mount the original postcards for a delightful display.