“What if…?” “I wonder…?”
Extend Your Read Alouds Through Art Explorations!
Presenter: Judy Ross
[email protected] www.playfulteachingandlearning.com
Maker Stories
The Do-Nothing Machine (Sharon MacDonald)
Our “What if?/I wonder?” Questions: How can I make my own “do-nothing machine” from materials I have on
hand? What changes or adaptations will I make during the process?
Activity: After reading the story, encourage children to make their own “do-nothing machines” from materials you
have on hand. Suggested items might be:




Miscellaneous items you’ve collected in a “Go-Backs Box”, such as: parts of old toys, bear counters, puzzle
pieces, Legos, buttons, linker cubes, marbles, lids, rubber bands, paper clips, or any other odd items you’ve
thrown in a box to sort and put away later.
Miscellaneous art materials, such as: scrap paper, notions, buttons, puffs, fuzzy sticks, etc.
Recycled materials, such as: wrappers, plastic bottles, boxes, empty milk cartons, etc.
Materials you’ve collected together on a nature walk, such as: leaves, sticks, stones, etc.
Emphasize the process, rather than the product, and encourage children to change or adapt their creations
however they wish. Talk with children about the colors, shapes, sizes, textures, and functions of their creations.
Provide a space for children to save their “do-nothing machines” (e.g., on trays or in a box lid, in a corner of the
room) and provide time for children to continue their work throughout the week. Encourage children to make
changes or adjustments to their projects if they want to. Provide time for children to share their creations with the
group, and talk about their thinking processes as they were creating. Children could also draw their creation (or take
a photo of their work) and dictate a story to go with their picture/photo. Use these to create a class “Maker Book”, or
choose a picture/photo for composing a chart story for shared reading.
Not a Box (Antoinette Portis)
A Box Story (Kenneth Kit Lamug)
Our “What if?/I wonder?” Questions: What could I put in a box? If it’s not a box, then what could it be? What
could I make from a box, boxes, or a drawing of a box?
Activity: After reading the stories, ask children to create something from a box (or more than one box). For these
projects, ask children to bring in small, medium, or large boxes, and talk about the sizes. Invite children to decorate
their box creations, if desired. Ask children to share how they worked together to make their structures, and invite
other children to share ideas about what their box creations could be. Take a picture of each child’s creation and ask
him/her to write about it. Use these to create a story wall for shared reading. Another idea is to draw a box shape
with a black marker on a sheet of paper, and ask children to use a red marker to add details to make their own “not a
box” creations (as in the story). Ask children to dictate a story about their creation, or ask them to write a label for it.
Mount stories on red construction paper, and use them to create a wall story or class big book.
Not a Stick (Antoinette Portis)
Our “What if?/I wonder?” Questions: What if I create something with fuzzy sticks? I wonder if I’ll use straight
lines, wavy lines, curves, spirals, zig-zags, or…?
1
Activity: Try creating something from fuzzy sticks (pipecleaners). Children may want to start with the “do-nothing
machine” idea and go from there, or they may have a definite idea in mind of what they want to build. Another idea:
Give each child a fuzzy stick and make a group creation, or provide several fuzzy sticks per child to make their own
creations or work with partners.
When I Build With Blocks (Niki Alling)
Our “What if?/I wonder?” Questions: What can I create with blocks? How do the blocks go together? What story
scenarios can I imagine with my creation, and what will I need to add (e.g., toy people, animals, etc.) to be able to tell
my story?
Activity: After reading the story, ask children to view the last page, which has ideas for building with blocks, and has
labels for each creation. Ask children to work individually, in pairs, or small groups to create a structure. Ask them
to make a label for it, and share about their creation. Take pictures of the finished projects, or ask children to make a
“blueprint” first, and draw their block structure ideas before building. Use these to create a class book, “When We
Build With Blocks”.
Rollercoaster (Marla Frazee)
Our “What if?/I wonder?” Questions: What materials could I use to create a “rollercoaster creation”?
Do I need straight pieces, curves, and how many of each?
Activity: After reading, challenge children to create a “rollercoaster” from any building materials or art materials you
have in your classroom. Encourage children to experiment with force and motion, and the effects of different
pushes/pulls on their rollercoaster cars. How can they design a rollercoaster with inclines, descents, and
straightaways that would keep their vehicle moving efficiently, and take their vehicle from the starting point to the end
without stopping? Another idea: try adding a 360 degree loop! How will your vehicle travel around the loop? What
design adjustments will you need to make? How will you make sure that your vehicle will have enough speed to
make it all the way around the loop?
Beautiful Oops! (Barney Saltzberg)
Our “What if?/I wonder?” Questions: What if I make a mistake (an “oops”) when I’m creating my artwork? Is that
ok? (Yes!!) What can I make from an “oops” (instead of throwing my paper away)?
Activity: After reading the story, ask children to brainstorm ways to create something from an “oops” (which could
be a crumpled up paper, a stain, a tear, a bent corner, a smudge, a scribble, etc.). Encourage children to create
artwork from an “oops” and then write about it. Create a story wall for shared reading, from the children’s art and
stories. Discuss the big idea: that we can always create something beautiful from a mistake, and that sometimes an
unexpected mistake can lead to great discoveries!
The Dot (Peter H. Reynolds)
Our “What if?/I wonder?” Questions: What if I created art from one dot? I wonder what size dot I’ll use?
Activity: After reading the story, challenge children to make a dot on a piece of paper. Add details to create an
abstract design, or create a picture of a specific thing, such as a person, an animal, an object, etc. Encourage
children to share their creations, and talk about the colors, shapes, and sizes they see.
2
I Spy! Books (photographs by Walter Wick; based on riddles by Jean Marzollo)
Our “What if?/I wonder?” Questions: What if I created an “I Spy” picture? I wonder what objects to hide in my
picture? How will I describe the objects so others can find them in my picture? What clues will I give?
Activity: After reading the story, ask children to create “I Spy” pictures. They could do this by drawing pictures of
specific items, gluing magazine pictures of items, or gluing items they want children to look for in their picture, such
as buttons, pennies, bottle caps, fabric scraps, etc. Another idea is to have children draw several small objects on
their papers, and then use Bingo markers to mark over the objects to “hide” them. Ask children to work with a
partner and find the hidden objects in each other’s artwork.
Wacky Wednesday (Dr. Seuss)
Our “What if?/I wonder?” Question: What kinds of things are “wacky”? How can I use my ideas to create a
wacky picture?
Activity: After reading Wacky Wednesday, show children the “What’s Wrong?” cards (available at Lakeshore, or
from Key Education: item #KE-845021) and discuss. Then, have children brainstorm things that are wacky, and
create a wacky picture. They could write about their picture, using this sentence starter: “My picture is wacky
because…”
Fabulous Fairy Tales
The Gingerbread Man (Use your favorite version.)
Our “What if?/I wonder?” Questions: Where has our gingerbread man been, and what’s his story, based on the
evidence?
Activity: After reading the story, invite children to help you make a “cookie man”, either from gingerbread dough, or
sugar cookie dough. We used M & M’s to create a face and buttons. After baking, we allow it to cool, as children go
home for the day. After children leave, add realia items (such as a little cap, toy soda bottle and balloons, our
classroom key, etc.). I use little items I’ve saved in baggies for teaching each letter of the alphabet. (You can make
your own collections from fast food children’s meal toys, thrift store items, and items from the local party supply or
dollar store.) You can make other changes to the cookie man as well, such as plucking off an M & M button, or
adding a small bandage. The next day, allow children to notice the changes (i.e., the “evidence” on him that wasn’t
there before). Based on the “evidence”, children piece together his “story”, draw the cookie man, and dictate stories
for a class big book. We titled this book “The Adventures of the Cookie Man”.
Extension Activity #1: Could he really “melt” (dissolve) if he fell in the water? Make predictions, and estimate how
long he could be in water before he dissolves. Give each child a mini gingerbread man cookie, a cup of water, and
let the observations begin! Discuss observations and record findings.
Extension Activity #2: How could we help our gingerbread man safely cross the river (without having to accept a
ride from the fox)? Try creating a lifejacket or other flotation device (e.g., a life preserver or boat) for him from foil, or
other materials. Which method works best to help him stay afloat and safely get away from the fox? Invite children to
test their ideas with a tub of water. Discuss observations and record findings.
The Three Little Pigs (Use your favorite version.)
Our “What if?/I wonder?” Questions: How can I create an indestructible house for the three pigs, that would keep
them safe from the big bad wolf? What materials will I use? How will I join the materials together to create a sturdy
house?
3
Activity: After reading the story, do a preliminary activity with children where they blow on different materials
(perhaps items from your “Go-Backs Box) and test which items will move when they blow on them. Observations
could be recorded in science journals, or recorded on chart paper under the categories of “Blow” and “Not Blow”.
Then, supply children with building materials, and challenge them to create a sturdy house for the three pigs. Have
them work at tables. Ask them to create a plan (“blueprint”) and draw their designs first. Then, ask them to create
their structures and test the houses by blowing on them, tapping them, and creating an “earthquake” (shaking the
table). Which designs work best? Which materials work best? Why? Discuss observations and record findings.
The Three Billy Goats Gruff (Use your favorite version.)
Our “What if?/I wonder?” Questions: How could I design a bridge that would be strong enough to support the
weight of all three billy goats as they cross the bridge together to escape from the troll? What materials will I use?
How will I join the materials together to create a sturdy bridge? What online and book resources are available to
help me understand how a bridge is constructed? How will that knowledge help me build a sturdy bridge?
Activity: After reading the story, help children to research different kinds of bridges and how they are built.
Encourage children to use that knowledge to first draw their bridge designs, and then construct the bridges. Use toy
goat figures of varying weights and sizes, and test whether the structures will support their weight. Which designs
work best? Which materials work best? Why? Discuss observations and record findings.
Letters, Colors, Shapes, and Numbers
Alphabatics (Suse MacDonald)
Our “What if?/I wonder?” Questions: What shapes do we see in our alphabet letters? If we play with letters, what
pictures can we create?
Activity: Have children first try to make themselves into the shapes of letters. They might do this individually, or
with a partner or group. Talk about the lines, curves, and shapes of letters. What observations might they make?
(For example, an “M” might look like mountains, an “O” might look like a hula hoop, or a “Z” like a zig-zag.) Provide
die cut letters and encourage children to make pictures with them, or ask them to draw letters, and make them into
something. Another idea would be to give each child the first letter of his/her name, or the “letter of the week” you’ve
been working on. Encourage children to play with and explore ideas together, and then share their pictures with the
group when everyone is finished. (Variation: Try this with numerals, as well.)
“I Can Sing” Red (Frog Street Press)
Colors Everywhere (Tana Hoban)
Our “What if?/I wonder?” Questions: What if I created a collage about one color? I wonder what color I’ll
choose? What color is my favorite, and why? How does my favorite color make me feel? What does it make me
think of?
Activity: After reading the story, ask children to create collages centered around a color of their choice. Children
could cut pictures out of magazines, download pictures online, or draw pictures for their collages. As a group, view
finished collages and ask children to make observations. What do they notice? Perhaps children were able to find
more pictures for one color than another, for example. Ask children to include a title for their collage (e.g., “My Red
Collage”), and to tell you about the process they used to make it.
4
The Perfect Square (Michael Hall)
Our “What if?/I wonder?” Questions: What could a square become? What color square will I use? Will I use
more than one square? What tools will I need to transform my square? Will I need scissors, a hole punch, or other
tools? What method will I use to create my art? Will I tear, cut, punch holes in, crumple, or fold my square(s)?
Activity: After reading the story, provide children with a large square of their color choice, and encourage them to
transform their square into something else. Discuss possibilities, provide tools, and a larger sheet of paper (e.g.,
12”x18” construction paper) to glue their design on. Before gluing, ask children to lay out their design on paper, and
see if they want to make any adaptations/changes before gluing. Invite children to dictate a story about their artwork
to you. Save these for a class book, shared reading chart, or wall story.
Museum Shapes (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
(See other shape stories listed in resources section below, as additional story options.)
When a Line Bends, a Shape Begins (Rhonda Gowler Greene)
Our “What if?/I wonder?” Questions: Where do we see shapes in our everyday life? What can we draw/create
with shapes?
Activity: After reading shape stories, ask children to create art with shapes. Encourage them to create buildings,
shape people, abstract designs, animals, or anything else they can imagine, using 2D shapes. Introduce 3D shapes
(e.g., sphere, cone, cube, rectangular prism, cylinder), and encourage children to make 3D sculptures, using, for
example, modeling clay spheres and spaghetti noodles. Children can name their creations, or dictate a sentence
about their art to you. You can also compile children’s photos of their creations, and their stories, into a “Maker
Book”, or “Shape Book”.
Variation: Invite children to do marble painting (squirt paint on a paper, and roll a marble around in the paint as it
“paints” the picture). What shapes, designs, lines, etc., do they notice? Note similarities and differences in children’s
artwork. Make observations.
Little Cloud (Eric Carle)
It Looked Like Spilt Milk (Charles G. Shaw)
Clouds (Sue Smith Slavin)
Our “What if?/I wonder?” Questions: I wonder how cotton balls (or cotton fiberfill) are like clouds? I wonder what
I could create with cotton balls that looks like cloud shapes I might see in the sky?
Activity: After reading the stories, ask children to freely explore the cotton balls. Do they stretch? Do they break if
you stretch them? Why? Can you join the balls together? What happens? Remind them to use their five senses as
they explore. Encourage children to talk about what they are noticing as they explore. Model the use of descriptive
words, such as soft, stretchy, white, squishy, round, light, small, etc.
After children have had a chance to freely explore, encourage them to try making shapes, animals, people, objects,
or whatever they would like to create. If children have not yet discovered how to stretch the cotton balls, show them
how to gently tug the cotton in different directions to form their creations. Encourage them to use their imaginations
and make several designs, with one or more cotton balls, and/or a handful of the fiberfill.
As children complete one or more creations, ask them to choose one cloud creation to glue on a paper. Ask children
to dictate a story about their creations.
5
Ten Black Dots By Donald Crews
Our “What if?/I wonder?” Question: What can we make with black dots? What happens if we make a path with
black dots? Where would it lead us?
Activity: After reading the story, brainstorm what you could make with 1, 2, 3, or up to 10 black dots. Work together
to create pages for a class book or wall story, or do individual stories. Try using this sentence starter for each page:
“______ black dots can make a ______.” Another idea would be to take a number of large black dots (use any
number up to 100) and make a path with them for children to follow. How far could 20 black dots take you? 50?
100?
Raven: A Trickster Tale From the Pacific Northwest (Gerald McDermott)
Oscar and the Bird: A Book About Electricity (Geoff Waring)
Our “What if?/I wonder?” Questions: How will I design my creation? How can I make my creation light up? If the
LED lights don’t work, how will I solve the problem? What solutions will I try?
Activity: After reading the stories, encourage children to talk about their experiences with light. For example, they
may talk about lights in their house, the stars in the sky, or a toy they have that lights up. Provide LED lights for
children to explore and observe. Ask children to share their ideas on how they think light bulbs work. Provide
materials to make “squishy circuits” and let the explorations begin! You’ll need: playdough (conductive dough- buy it
or make it yourself), modeling clay (resistive dough- buy it or make it yourself), LED lights, and a battery pack. The
first link below is a great tutorial for teachers on how electricity works, and open/closed circuits. The second link
shows how to do the “squishy circuits” activities with young children, and how to make your own dough.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2EuYqj_0Uk
http://courseweb.stthomas.edu/apthomas/SquishyCircuits/videos2.htm
(Under “Squishy Circuits Videos”, select “Squishy Circuit Basics”, then “Making Your First Squishy Circuit.”)
*Note: “Squishy Circuits” is the brainchild of Ann Marie Thomas, from the Playful Learning Lab at the University of
St. Thomas. Please see the website: www.squishycircuits.com.
Teacher Resources by Category
Maker Stories











Tinkerlab: A Hands-On Guide For Little Inventors (Rachelle Doorley)
Making Makers: Kids, Tools, and the Future of Innovation (AnnMarie Thomas)
Loose Parts: Inspiring Play in Young Children (Lisa Daly & Miriam Beloglovsky)
The Do-Nothing Machine (Sharon MacDonald)
Not a Box and Not a Stick (Antoinette Portis)
A Box Story (Kenneth Kit Lamug)
When I Build With Blocks (Niki Alling)
Rollercoaster (Marla Frazee)
Shapes: What’s the Big Idea? (Pamela Schroeder & Jean Donisch)
Circles Around Town (Nathan Olson)
(Other titles in the “Around Town” series feature triangles, squares, and rectangles.)
Cubes, Cones, Cylinders, and Spheres (Tana Hoban)
6













Look What You Can Make With Boxes (Lorianne Siomades & Hank Schneider)
Look What You Can Make With Egg Cartons (Betsy Ochester & Hank Schneider)
Look What You Can Make With Tubes (Margie Hayes Richmond & Hank Schneider)
Look What You Can Make With Paper Plates (Margie Hayes Richmond & Hank Schneider)
Look What You Can Make With Paper Bags (Judy Burke & Hank Schneider)
What Can You Do With a Paper Bag? (Judith Cressy)
6 Sticks (Molly Coxe)
Beautiful Oops (Barney Saltzberg)
The Dot (Peter H. Reynolds)
I Spy! Books (photographs by Walter Wick; based on riddles by Jean Marzollo)
Wacky Wednesday (Dr. Seuss)
“What’s Wrong?” Cards (available at Lakeshore, or from Key Education: item #KE-845021)
Resources available on Teachers Pay Teachers: (3 items)
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Judy-Ross
The Secret Life of the Gingerbread Man: What’s His Story?
What Can YOU Do With a Piece of Paper?
Common Core and Content Standards for Exploration Stations
Fabulous Fairy Tales











The Gingerbread Man (use your favorite version)
The Three Little Pigs (use your favorite version)
The Three Billy Goats Gruff (use your favorite version)
Lakeshore Fairy Tales Problem Solving STEM Kits (for Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Three Little
Pigs, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, etc.) www.lakeshore.com
Bridges! (Carol A. Johmann & Elizabeth Rieth)
Raven: A Trickster Tale From the Pacific Northwest (Gerald McDermott)
Oscar and the Bird: A Book About Electricity (Geoff Waring)
Oscar and the Moth: A Book About Light and Dark (Geoff Waring)
All About Light (Lisa Trumbauer)
Light is All Around Us (Wendy Pfeffer and Paul Meisel)
Squishy Circuits Activities (AnnMarie Thomas, University of St. Thomas)
http://courseweb.stthomas.edu/apthomas/SquishyCircuits/videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2EuYqj_0Uk
Letters, Colors, Shapes, and Numbers












Alphabatics (Suse MacDonald)
“Sing and Read” Red (Frog Street Press; available in other colors, as well)
Colors Everywhere (Tana Hoban)
Perfect Square (Michael Hall)
Ten Black Dots (Donald Crews)
Museum Shapes; Museum Colors; Museum ABC; Museum 123 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
When a Line Bends, a Shape Begins (Rhonda Gowler Greene)
Duck! Rabbit! (Amy Krouse Rosenthal)
Little Cloud (Eric Carle)
It Looked Like Spilt Milk (Charles G. Shaw)
Clouds (Sue Smith Slavin)
If (Sarah Perry)
7
My “What if” and “I wonder” Art Ideas
My “Not-a Box”
My Beautiful Oops
My Art From a Dot
My Wacky Picture
Art From My First Letter
My Cloud Creation
8