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Elementary Teaching Blog

Teaching with Tomie dePaola Books Part 2: The Art Lesson & Tony’s Bread

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A four-part blog series on teaching with Tomie depaola books. This teacher shares ideas for using The Art Lesson to teach story structure and author's viewpoint.

We’re knee deep now in our Tomie dePaola author study . Each time I read The Art Lesson I’m reminded and amazed all over again at the acute recollection Tomie dePaola has of his childhood. Down to the last detail.  It’s those little details in the story and illustrations that draw me in and make The Art Lesson one of my favorite books to teach with. I always say that Tomie books are every teacher’s dream.  I love his simple, relevant themes and his books work so perfectly for teaching just about about any comprehension strategy and story structure.  All the things you can do with these books for cause/effect, problem/solution, drawing conclusions, analyzing characters, their traits, and how they change is limitless!

Many are autobiographical tales and lend themselves so perfectly to teaching about an author’s viewpoint which can be a bit tricky for young readers. And text-to-text connections? You could practically create a timeline of this author’s life just through the characters in his books! I have a deep connection to The Art Lesson because I can relate so well to the main character,Tommy.

Some of my earliest memories are of coloring with my mother. My mother loved everything I drew (bless her heart) and saved it all. I loved art as a child and spent hours upon hours drawing. I changed schools in first grade mid year and I was terrified!  Art class was my safe place and after school art lessons were my absolute joy! I drew my way through elementary school and on into high school where my art teacher’s name was Mrs. Josie Brower. True story.
As a clueless 17 year old, she helped me create a portfolio and apply to a prestigious art school in Chicago. I didn’t realize the magnitude or the accomplishment of that at the time and downtown Chicago was quite a shock to a naive and fairly sheltered Ohio girl.As a student I had access to The Art Institute of Chicago and The Goodman Theater  anytime I wanted and I spent countless hours wandering in wonder through those halls. I often think about Mrs. Brower and wonder what a different turn my life would have taken without her influence and help and I’m so grateful to her. Teachers truly are amazing people aren’t they?  But, enough of my digression down memory lane!
I wanted to share some of the wonderful learning we did with The Art Lesson. I love to use this book for teaching about an author’s viewpoint.  After reading it aloud we talked
about how sometimes a reader can tell how the author thinks or feels by what their characters say and do.
This can take a bit of a leap in thinking and takes a fair amount of modeling on my part. I learned last year that some of my kids get stuck on identifying an event that they can infer something from so this year I placed them in small discussion groups and gave them these thinking prompts.
Thinking points for guiding students to make inferences about an author's viewpoint for The Art Lesson by Tomie dePaola
After talking with their groups we made this class chart.
Teaching with Tomie dePaola books Part 2 Author's viewpoint anchor chart for The Art Lesson from Around the Kampfire blog
The blue is what we can infer about the author’s viewpoint
from story events and the character’s actions.  The orange is the
evidence from the text to support our inferences.
Each student then made their own Tommy and wrote
their thoughts and inferences about the author’s viewpoint
as well as evidence and events from the text to support them.
Author's viewpoint writing craft for The Art Lesson by Tomie dePaola
Author's viewpoint writing craft for The Art Lesson by Tomie dePaola
Author's viewpoint writing craft for The Art Lesson by Tomie dePaola
Author's viewpoint writing craft for The Art Lesson by Tomie dePaola bulletin board display
Throughout our author study we compared story elements
from several of the books.
Comparing story elements in Tomie dePaola books during our author study
Comparing characters in Tomie dePaola books during our author study
Comparing settings in Tomie dePaola books during our author study
Comparing settings in Tomie dePaola books during our author study
Comparing problems in Tomie dePaola books during our author study
“Love sick” is the new word in my classroom!
My kids are getting to the age and time of year (It must be
a spring thing!) when they start to whisper about who has
a crush on who and thewords “love sick” are being
whispered a lot!
Comparing solutions in Tomie dePaola books during our author study
As one of our literacy centers my kids reviewed fact and opinion.
Fact and opinion activity for The Art Lesson by Tomie dePaola
We made these mini-art galleries of characters with
character traits written on the backs of the “canvases”.
Making character "art galleries" with character traits on the back of each "canvas" during our Tomie dePaola author study
We’ll set these, along with all of our Tomie projects,
out on little “museum floors” for our end of year open house.
Making character "art galleries" with character traits on the back of each "canvas" during our Tomie dePaola author study
Character portraits "art galleries" with character traits on the back of each "canvas" during our Tomie dePaola author study
This is one from last year with the little museum floor.
How cute is that?
Character portraits "art galleries" with character traits on the back of each "canvas" during our Tomie dePaola author study

If you like these ideas, be sure to pin them for later!

Teaching activities for The Art Lesson by Tomie dePaola
Teaching with Tomie dePaola books Part 2 in the series: Tony's Bread on around the Kampfire blog with FREE summary writing tool
The next book we worked with in our author study is Tony’s Bread.
This book lends itself really well to teaching about how a character changes during their
journey through a story.
I had my students work in pairs for this activity.  I gave them either beginning,
middle, or end and asked them to think about and choose adjectives
to describe Tony during their given part of the story.
Both brainstormed and one recorded on these little
bread shapes. (I drew them first on paper then copied them
onto construction paper.  You can see how I make instant
sticky notes with the shapes I want and reuse my charts HERE)
This teacher makes her own sticky notes for anchor charts for Tony's Bread by Tomie dePaola
 We created a bubble map inside of a flow map describing how
Tony changes.  One of my kiddos LOVES to come up with new
names for all of the combos of thinking maps we make so here it is…
it’s a…… FLUBBLE MAP.  Not sure if the Thinking Maps people
would agree but that is the official name in my classroom!
Tony's Bread by Tomie dePaola~ Anchor chart for determining how the character changes during our Tomie author study. Around the Kampfire blog
As always, I asked them provide evidence from the text to justify
their adjective choices.
Tony's Bread by Tomie dePaola~ Anchor chart for determining how the character changes during our Tomie author study. Around the Kampfire blog
Tony's Bread by Tomie dePaola~ Anchor chart for determining how the character changes during our Tomie author study. Around the Kampfire blog
Next, each kiddo got to make their own.  This way they got to address
each part, beginning,middle and end of the story as well as use
their own  ideas and adjectives.
BECAUSE…is an important word in our classroom and they wrote
why and explained their thinking  inside each frame of reference.
Student page for using adjectives to describe how Tony changes in Tony's Bread by Tomie dePaola
Student page for using adjectives to describe how Tony changes in Tony's Bread by Tomie dePaola
FREE student page for writing a summary of Tony's Bread by Tomie dePaola

We used  Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then to help us decompose the story.

You can download a FREE copy {HERE}
We then used these to help us write “sandwich summaries” of Tony’s Bread.
We wrote "sandwich summaries" for Tony's Bread during our Tomie dePaola author study~ Around the Kampfire blog
We wrote "sandwich summaries" for Tony's Bread during our Tomie dePaola author study~ Around the Kampfire blog
We wrote "sandwich summaries" for Tony's Bread during our Tomie dePaola author study~ Around the Kampfire blog
"Sandwich summaries" writing craft for Tony's Bread during our Tomie dePaola author study~ Around the Kampfire blog

 Be sure to pin these ideas to share with your teacher friends!

Teaching ideas, activities, and resources for Tony's Bread by Tomie dePaola
Well, that about wraps it up for now!
If you’d like to do this Tomie dePaola author study with your class
click the pic below to see the unit.
Tomie dePaola author study by Linda Kamp on TeachersPayTeachers.com
 Be sure to stop back for Part 3 when I show you all of our learning
with the Strega Nona series!

To see all four parts of this series click the links below:

Teaching with Tomie dePaola books Part 1: Little Grunt and the Big EggTeaching with Tomie dePaola books Part 2: Tony's Bread and The Art Lesson
Teaching with Tomie dePaola books Part 3: The Strega Nona seriesTeaching with Tomie dePaola books Part 4: Responding to the literature. We made these foldable Strega Nona cottages to publish our writing.
Teaching with Tomie dePaola Books: The Art Lesson & Tony’s Bread
Happy teaching with Tomie books, friends!

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Comments

  1. Lisa Mattes says

    Oh my goodness, Linda. You are so talented. I wish I lived closer to you so I could soak up your brilliance face to face all the time! What an amazing post for an amazing author!!!! I am in awe of you!
    Growing Firsties

    Reply

  2. Rebecca H. says

    Ohhh, you went to art school! Now I know why your anchor charts always look AMAZING! I already own this unit and am planning on starting to use it next week! Can't wait!

    Rebecca
    Ladybugs Lounge

    Reply

  3. Mrs. Sheehan says

    Art was always there for me when I was a kid. I didn't know a word of English but I could draw, color and tell stories with my art. Growing up I wanted to be a Disney animator 🙂
    Things didn't quite work out that way but I do get to be an artist every day in my classroom 🙂 and the kids appreciate every masterpiece 😀
    I love your posts on this series. Can't wait for the next one!
    Maribel

    Reply

  7. Linda says

    Oh my gosh, Lisa! You are so sweet, friend! I wish we lived closer so we could hang out and gab! I would LOVE to see a show of his original artwork and how fun would it be to meet him? You are so lucky he came to your elementary school!

    Reply

  9. Linda says

    Thank you, Olga! I hope you can use some of these in your classroom! Tomie books are perfect for getting kids to think about their reading!

    Reply

  11. Linda says

    Thanks so much, Barbara! Tomie books are a teacher's dream for making reading, thinking, and learning fun!

    Reply

  12. Linda says

    Gosh, Maribel that must have been so hard! I'm so glad you had your art! Teaching is such a creative outlet isn't it? For us and our kiddos. It's one of the things I love most about it! We can teach our kiddos to think and express themselves outside of the box!

    Reply

  13. Megan says

    Thanks so much for these awesome ideas! Would you be wiling to share electronic copies of the pages you used? I would lOVE to use them with my second graders!

    Reply

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