Arlo Needs Glasses

Last week we finished up a 3 week project based on the book Arlo Needs Glasses by Barney Saltzberg. The kids LOVED this book and if you decide to order this book for your child, or classroom I would recommend ordering more than one because the kids loved it very much and they all want to read a copy! It is about a dog who cant play catch anymore so his owner takes him to the eye doctor where he finds out his dog needs glasses. After trying on many glasses, arlo finds the best pair. Arlo is able to play catch again but his favorite thing to do is read =).

I cant take credit for this lesson because I found it on pinterest, however, it was one of the best projects I have taught because everyone is successful and they loved it. I did this lesson for kindergarten and first grade, however it could be adapted for older grades. The first week, we started off reading the book Arlo Needs Glasses by Barney Saltzberg. This is a very interactive book and the kids just love it! Anyways, we read the book and began drawing our own Arlo's. This step turned out so cute! We drew with pencil first and then we used a sharpie to cover up our pencil lines. We then colored our Arlo's yellow with crayon.  For the background around the dog, we got out some chalk and colored and smudge our chalk using our fingers. This was very messy, but the kids loved using chalk because we don't get it out very much!

The 2nd art class we decorate a pair of glasses. I had precut glasses already made. Each students got a pair and decorate them using markers. I encouraged them to add pattern or make them colorful instead of just coloring them one solid color...next, students got to go to different tables in which they got to chose to add glitter ( yes, I let them use glitter and it was everywhere ), sequins and little colored squares. The students loved this part. I let them go to each station if they wanted too. After the glasses were finished, we let them dry.

For the last and final week, we took our glasses and glued them onto our Arlo dogs. They had to be very careful because some of them were very heavily decorated. Once the glasses were glued down, students were able to add their final touches to their art and they turned out AWESOME!!!!! I love these SOOOO much!!!!!