Yertle the Turtle

We read Yertle the Turtle a few weeks ago. I love Dr. Seuss. There’s just something fun about reading his books. That’s why 50 years later we’re still reading his books in droves. I don’t think 50 years later we will be reading Spongebob or Dora.

So, the story of Yertle, is he’s king of all he can see, and he wants to be king of more. So he makes the other turtles let him climb on them, so he can be king of more.

And, well I got this “brilliant” idea to make this into a fun art project/game.

Here’s what you need: plastic easter eggs or egg cartons cut into single egg holes (what would that be called?), paint, glue, construction paper (learn from my mistake).

Here’s where I went wrong. I tried to make it too complicated (I know big surprsie). I thought I wanted it to be more durable, so I thought about and rejected fun foam because it would be too stiff. Then I thought of fabric, good, now here’s where I got stupid. I interfaced it, even stupider I interfaced it with fusible fleece, so suddenly it’s probably just as stiff as the fun foam if not more so.

So, that was mistake number 1, the next one? I thought to glue the legs and head inside, and that just did not work, it was too hard. One of the boys solved my problem. You glue it on the ouside, and it looks way too cute.

Princess and Batman, I had to look at about 6 photos before I figured out which kid was in which Batman shirt.

1. Paint the egg halves. This was the least mesiest part. Sadly.

2. When you’re done painting your eggs, start painting the paper underneath. Have fun making egg imprints (much like the cookie cutter painting).

3. Get bored painting paper, and paint yourself. Make note to start a load of laundry. Also, ask yourself why you let her wear her new shirt for this project. Sigh.

One last shot of the mostly clean shirt.

Now send them off for a bath while the paint dries. It’s probably mostly dry now if you used acrylics or poster paint, as long as it’s not super glopped on. My kids have learned the routine, now when they’re done painting they start stripping their clothes off and run to the bath tub.

4. Cut 4 small ovals, one biggish oval, and 1 triangle out of green construction paper. (It’s probably best if you do this, because these are fairly small pieces).

5. Let the kids draw a face on the biggish oval. If you have googly eyes, glue those on. You’ll probably have to do that part, my kids just couldn’t manage it. Oh, and notice the new shirt Batman is wearing.

6. Now let them glue on the different parts. Like I said, I figured out it works much better if you glue it on the outside, it will stay on better. Heck, it’ll work much better without the silly fabric I used. (Ticia wanders off muttering about over achievement, and why does she make life harder on herself). Also, notice I wised up and she’s wearing nothing.

Let dry again for a few hours, then play with it. At this point they remembered that they’d read that turtles have nests, so they wanted their nests they’d made the week before (the ones I’d thrown away, except for Batman’s). Oops….. So, Batman graciously gave his to Superman so he could make a new one.

(sorry the picture is slightly blurry, camera phones don’t take the best pictures).

To see more story book art check out A Mommy’s Adventures.