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Collage art and craft project for kids based on the book, Chicken Little. Art & Literature art projects by Deep Space Sparkle

Chicken Little & Henny Penny Art Project

K

55

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Collage art and craft project for kids based on the book, Chicken Little. Art & Literature art projects by Deep Space Sparkle

Chicken Little is a folk tale about a chicken who believes the world is coming to an end. Those who study tales in school may have already found ways to incorporate this character into the art room but if you haven’t, here is my version…

After reading Ed and Rebecca Emberley’s version, the children identified the various colors and shapes in the illustrations of both Chicken Little and Henny Penny. I love this version as the illustrations are colorful, bright and slightly random. Easy for kids to identify with.

Collage art and craft project for kids based on the book, Chicken Little. Art & Literature art projects by Deep Space Sparkle

The first step…well, it’s really the second step but I’ll get to that in a minute…is to paint the background. You can keep this super simple by just using a colored piece of paper (perhaps a turquoise 12″ x 18″ piece of sulphite paper) or you can use white paper and paint a background. This is what I chose to do with my Kinders. This gives me a chance to introduce tints by placing both white and blue in a paint palette and showing how to double-load brushes to achieve a soft blue or pastel.

I showed the kids how to paint a blue sky then add clouds. It’s best to let the blue sky dry a bit before attempting to add white clouds as the colors will just mix together. Waiting is hard for Kinders so I told them to paint the sky first, then paint the grass green and by the time they finish the grass, the blue sky would be ready for clouds.

To make clouds, clean brush, wipe away excess water on the paper placemat then dip into a puddle of white, goopy paint. Apply in dabs and blots until you have clouds.

Collage art and craft project for kids based on the book, Chicken Little. Art & Literature art projects by Deep Space Sparkle

After creating the background, its time to create a chicken. My Kinders created painted paper for their chickens and this is really the first step to this project. I always do a painted paper project at the beginning of the school year with Kinders so this project is for that purpose. But if you don’t want to commit to the mess of painted paper (and it is really messy) you can use a color paper scraps. In all honesty, the project would have been a whole lot easier if I stuck with plain color paper, but I didn’t, so onwards…

Collage art and craft project for kids based on the book, Chicken Little. Art & Literature art projects by Deep Space Sparkle

To make chicken parts, you can instruct children how to draw parts of a chicken or you can use templates. I did both. I cut up the painted paper into 9″ x 6″ rectangles (12″ x 18″ quartered). The child could pick any colored rectangle from this pile. Turning the rectangle over so the white part of the paper is turned up, the children used a black oil pastel to draw a tall mountain. Or they could draw an upside down letter “U”. Whatever word you use, this ends up being the body for Henny Penny.

I know what you are thinking. What happened to Chicken Little? Well, I’m not exactly sure. I showed the kids how to draw both Chicken Little and Henny Penny but afterwards I decided that Henny Penny seemed a whole lot easier. I also noticed that we didn’t have any yellow painted paper so I’m not going to lie…I encouraged the kids to draw Henny Penny.

For the eyes,  I placed plastic salsa cups and small baby food jar lids on each table and they could trace the lids to make big, bold and layered eyes. Coloring in a “pupil” with a black oil pastel and maybe adding a few eyelashes really helped give the chicken some personality.

The wings were hard to free draw. I had some wing templates in my classroom from another project so when I noticed my kids struggling a wee bit, I placed a few wing templates on their tables. You can never underestimate the value of templates. From my experience, kids love tracing. They also love it when something starts to look familiar. This is why templates are great in moderation. The Kinders worked hard on the body and eyeballs but needed a bit of help with those pesky and very weirdly shaped wings.

Templates

If you like templates, then you might like to download my FREE template and drawing guide for this project by clicking the banner below.

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Just so you know, I’m planning on doing this lesson with my first graders later this year just to see what they prefer: templates or free draw. I might focus more on sweet chicken little as well because he didn’t get too much attention here.

To finish up this project, bring out a few trays of oil pastels. I encouraged the kids who were finished cutting and pasting their bodies the opportunities to add details to their chicken like wing patterns or lines or whatever. I loved what they came up with.

Pretty cute, huh?

Collage art and craft project for kids based on the book, Chicken Little. Art & Literature art projects by Deep Space Sparkle


Like Art & Literature projects? So do I. Here is my growing list of projects I did with my students based on popular children’s books.

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  • Mrs.C

    These are just way too cute! 🙂 🙂 🙂

  • J. Bowen

    Patty, thank you for writing your lessons out so clearly! I love how you include comments like “I wish I had done this differently…” or ” Next time I would do it another way…” or “We didn’t have enough yellow paper so…” It just makes the lesson so clear PLUS gives alternatives. I have purchased several of your books and have used them all in my classroom. Well done–and your website is WONDERFUL!

    PS–Change the spelling on your Chicken Little page–last line–from “unpopular books” to “on popular books.” Ha! Sorry to point this out–I am a librarian’s daughter and just couldn’t let it go!

    • Patty Palmer

      Thank you for such a lovely comment! I’m so glad these instructions help because let’s face it, there’s a lot that can go wrong!
      And thank you for the spelling correction. I swear, auto correct is getting the best of me lately!

  • Shelly Hozack

    This is an awesome lesson. Can’t wait to try it with my Kinders! I love your honesty about what may or may not have been easier for the kids.

    Thanks

  • sellis@incarnationschool.edu

    Hi Patty,
    I have been following you for about 7-8 years! You have inspired and helped me sooo much, especially when I was just starting out as an art teacher for K-4th.
    Now I teach pre-K through 8th.
    I love the literature lessons. I have come up with a few myself and would like to offer them on Teachers Pay Teachers. I was wondering if you have to ask permission from the author/ illustrator/ publisher? Also I read that our schools have legal rights to our lessons! Have you found this is an issue?
    Thanks again and congratulations on all your success lately! You deserve it!
    Sincerely,
    Susie Ellis

    • Patty Palmer

      Hi Susie,
      Thanks so much for the lovely comments!
      You can use the cover of a book in a product but if you show inside a book, it must be your photograph and not reveal too much of the contents. You shouldn’t use the authors name or the book’s name as the cover of your project. For instance, I like saying Eric Carle-inspired lesson.
      I can’t speak to your districts policy but I doubt they own your intellectual property.
      Good luck!

  • Constance Kaminski

    Patty,
    I am a Sparkle member and tried to download the chicken little templates but it didn’t work. I clicked on the link and gave my email. I received a response back but no templates. I saw the Chicken LIttle project/post in the fall bundle that I unlocked but it doesn’t have a PDF with it. Any help you can give me would be great.
    Thanks
    Connie

    • Patty

      Hi Constance,
      I’m so sorry for the confusion.
      Right now, you are in the Deep Space Sparkle website. because you are a member of The Sparklers Club, you will need to login to the membership website. I’m going to have support send you an email walking you through the membership. It’ll be really helpful.
      But first, here are a few things to note:
      1. We sent your special login and website URL to you at the email you used for the membership. Did you receive it? If not, support can help you determine what email you used.
      2. If you do know your login, you can login through the DSS website via the menu bar. If you look in the menu, there is a text called The Sparklers Club. Just click there and login.

      3. The Chicken Little lesson is not a lesson inside our membership. Rather its a free lesson. The email is so we can send you the template via your email address. Have you checked your junk mail for the email?

  • Ann S

    So cute! We’re going to try this kinder project with another favorite: Mrs. Chicken and the Hungry Crocodile – Won-Ldy Paye, Margaret H. Hippert, Ill. by Julie Paschkis. The illustrations are made with guaches, but they look like they could be paper cutouts on black paper. I love the story about appearances, it’s a “trickster tale” from the Dan people of Africa.

  • donna simon

    I love your art ideas, thank you so much for sharing!

  • silia

    Thank you

  • Stephanie Lord

    I have been trying to send for the henny penny template pack for a couple of days now and it won’t go past the sign up window. Any suggestions as we’d love to do this lesson…we are learning about the chicken life cycle. Thanks!

    • Bethany

      Hi Stephanie! This is Bethany from Team Sparkle. I just tried the link and it looks like everything is working on our end. You might try restarting your computer and give it one more try or it could be a problem with your internet.

  • Robynne McLachlan

    I love the Chicken Little Henny Penny Art Project but for some reason my ability to download the template is being blocked probably because I work for a “government” school here in Australia.
    Could you possibly send it through to me via my email.
    That would be much appreciated especially as I have bought the book too!
    Robynne
    P.S. I teach Prep (5year olds) in Australia and love using your website to inspire my Art lessons.

  • Nelinda Vandenberg

    You specify Kinders as your focus group but I’m thinking my 2/3’s would like it too. It’s not too young for them, is it? I’m rushing here for next week’s lesson so if possible if you could answer soon that would be great. Thanks.

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