Extra Yarn is our favorite picture book ever made. Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen have teamed up to make an instant classic full of beautiful magic and sincere life lessons. #picturebooks #bestpicturebooks #kidsbooks #jonklassen #macbarnett #dadsuggests

This mentor text blog post includes ideas and activities on how to use Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett to teach the theme of kindness to primary grade students. Picture prompts, story discussion cards, and writing response templates are included in the FREE RESOURCE provided. #teachingtheme #extrayarn #mentortext

Hello! If you are visiting this page NOW, be sure to check out my Amazon Affiliate List where I have a running list of ALL my favorite art books for my elementary art classroom. I continually update this list as I find new amazing art books to share! ART BOOKS FOR KIDS (Amazon Affiliate list – no extra charge for you, I receive a small commission for recommending these books, which goes to support the upkeep of this blog.) HOW … Read more... →

This post may contain Amazon affiliate links for your convenience. Read full disclosure here. EXTRA YARN BY MAC BARNETT Extra Yarn is written by Mac Barnett and illustrated by one of my favorite illustrators, Jon Klassen. A little girl named Anabelle finds a magical box of colorful yarn. She knits herself a sweater but she has leftover yarn. She knits more and more and more and eventually transforms her dull gray town with her colorful knitting. BEYOND THE BOOK ACTIVITIES YARN BOMBING Look…

I've been busy working on setting up a project for my sons 1st grade class! It's an easy "knitting" project that is perfect for elementary age kids. With a cardboard roll, tape, and popsicle sticks, you can set up a simple loom. Then just like you would finger weave, you wrap the yarn around the tops

This art activity was inspired by Extra Yarn . To learn more about the book and to see all our Extra Yarn activities, click here. It seems to me that every child has the habit, in some form or another, of saving and collecting treasures. Never mind that those treasures...

We at CLiF don’t usually talk about people behind their backs, but, um, can we talk about Jon Klassen for a minute? Okay, are you aware that he won, not one, but two Caldecott Awards this year? Who does that? Honestly, where did this guy come from? What? Oh. Canada, of course. Right. Did you … Continued

A (age 10) came home from a library sponsered craft session, with a pretty, little, scrap yarn, heart glued to a piece of cardboard. It looked like something the younger girls might like too, so I cut up a cardboard box, and gathered some odds and ends of yarn, together with a couple of bottles of school glue, scissors, and a pencil. I made one with the girls, as a demo, detailing each step, as we went. 1. Draw a simple picture, lightly, in pencil, on a piece of cardboard (thick cardboard is…

Explore the joy of yarn doodle art with this easy, open-ended craft project. Kids will love experimenting with colors and shapes while enhancing their fine motor skills. Ideal for sparking creativity and providing a fun, mess-free art experience!