A while ago, I stumbled across the most adorable children’s books. Do You Have a Hat? written by Eileen Spinelli and illustrated by Geraldo Valerio features the hats of some very famous individuals: Goya, Lincoln, Carmen Miranda to name a few. It’s a great read for the classroom; funny, brief, historical and visually dynamic.
Since the book was written for the younger elementary student, I geared the art lesson for 1st grade. I created hat templates for the children to trace and decorate (sombrero, sunhat, cowboy hat, top hat, winter hat, etc). After tracing the hat onto a sheet of paper, the children then had a good starting point to draw the rest of their body. This turned out to be a perfect combination of literature, craft (hat decorating) and art (drawing and watercolor resist).
After doing this lesson a few times, I realized that instead of using all the hat templates in one lesson, you can break the lesson down into seasons (winter hat art project, Fiesta, Summer Fun, etc.) In a way, it makes it easier to help the students. This lesson is featured in The Members Club!
Here is a sampling of my first grade student’s work….
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I love this project, but I can not find the step by step lesson plan to complete it. Can anyone direct me?
Hi Leanne,
I post hundreds of free lesson tutorials but this one happens to be in a PDF file that you pay to download. Click on the link “PDF Art Booklet” in the post to be directed to the shop.
Patty-thanks so much for mentioning my post! It is an awesome lesson bc of your great pdf!
I do this lesson & read the book with third graders (following a lesson in self-portraits). Because they then know the proper proportions for a face, they create a cut-paper self-portrait and don their favorite hat – one that reveals their unique personality or favorite past time. Probably better suited for a little older student then they are free to create their own chapeau!
Rock it Patty. Thanks
My firsties had the best ever time with this project. After reading the book, and learning a little history, we had some adorable princesses and rowdy cowboys, complete with buttons, feathers, lace, and leather! Thanks for making the lesson available as an Art and Literature unit.
Can you tell me the steps you did with the kids? What kind of paint did you use?
Thanks
Hi Mary,
The full lesson with all the steps are included in this art bundle : https://www.deepspacesparkle.com/shop/classroom-teacher-bundle-prek-first-grade/
As for paints, I used liquid watercolor on sulphite paper! Works great 🙂
Some of the art my special education students have done from deep space sparkle were pieces that got so many compliments. They knew they were appreciated by both parents and other students.