Led by the Library team, Ethical Culture’s 2nd Graders recently visited the Society of Illustrators to view the Original Art Exhibit. During their visit, students viewed original illustrations created for picture books and saw the full scale of the illustrations before they were copied and bound.
When students arrived at the Society of Illustrators, they were tasked with picking their favorite illustration, identifying the author and the art medium used, then they drew their own version!
“This illustration is my favorite because it looks like where we live!”
— Sam F. ’35
The trip is the official launch of their Mock Caldecott Study, and students will spend the next two months evaluating picture books eligible to win the Caldecott Medal. The Caldecott Medal is awarded each year to the “most distinguished American picture books for children.”
In order to ground the students in the significance of the Caldecott Medal, we read the book biography, ‘Tomfoolery: Randolph Caldecott and the Rambunctious Coming-of-Age of Children’s Books’ by Michelle Markel’ to them.”
— Nicole Sterling, Ethical Culture Librarian
Later in the year, students will evaluate and critique the work of at least six illustrators. They will then attempt to guess the medium used by the illustrator to create their masterpiece, determine whether the illustrations help tell the story, and decide if this is a book children would want to pick up and read.
To round things out, students will rate the illustrations in each book on a scale of one to ten!
