Today I had the wonderful experience of going to the Bradley Beach Elementary School in Bradley Beach, NJ to teach 25 young artists how to draw a butterfly. I took my book, Mother Monarch with me. I read the book out loud to them and during the reading I had the original paintings and was able to hold them up for the children to see. I showed them how I drew the paintings and talked about all the research it took from raising the caterpillars and growing the milkweed. They learned what was involved in putting a book together and how I worked with my story to create each picture for the book. After the story was over I was able to use a digital visual projector named "Elmo" to draw a butterfly with the group. "Elmo" allowed me to draw a butterfly on a piece of paper while my hand was under a camera. The camera enlarged the drawing and it projected it onto the wall so the students could draw with me step by step. It was loads of fun and everyone created a one of kind butterfly. Each one was unique!
Do you have a group of young artists that you would like a school presentation for? You can contact Mindy at Mlighthipe@mac.com for information on how you can have her visit your school too.
