Earth Tales First Project

Bedtime in my house consists of tubbies, pjs, brushing teeth, and (my favorite part) bedtime stories! Most, if not all, families have some sort of bedtime ritual which is done every night with varying degrees of success (at least in my house). Last night we decided to begin reading Earth Tales, a great new title from Barefoot Books.

Discover how the rest of the world is 'Living Green'!

The Barefoot Book of Earth Tales -
In this beautiful anthology of folktales, young readers learn how different cultures around the world live in harmony with the rhythms and patterns of nature. Discover how to tread lightly on our precious Earth by following the easy eco-tips and trying out some of the fun and creative activities that accompany each story

The perfect gift for any earth-conscious child!

We read the first story which is the Aboriginal tale of the begin of the world. Gabbie exhausted from a full day of running around like a monkey fell asleep part way through the story. Theo and I finished reading the story and were delighted to find a fun activity. Since it was 8 pm we planed to get painting as soon as we finished breakfast.



The directions said to use a brown or tan piece of paper...we opted for a brown paper bag. We really do our best to bring reusable bags to the grocery store, but every once in awhile we either forget, or buy more groceries than the bags we have brought will hold. I guess we have been doing a great job of remembering to bring bags with, since we were only able to find one bag.

We were instructed to create a picture using colors you would find in nature, like the Aboriginal people would use in there drawings. Colors like brown, red, yellow, and green we decided on the tempera paint that came with our art box. The directions suggested using paint brushes, cotton balls, fingers, and a few other things to create the Aboriginal art work, we figured paint brushes and fingers were enough for us. Using an empty pickle bottle to carry out some water to clean our brushes between color and we were ready.
We gathered up our supplies and headed out onto the porch.


After cutting up our bag into four nice sized bits we got down to business.


The directions explained that Aboriginal art work tended to be a about an aerial view of places and things. We used dots, circles, lines, representing things like grass, water, and bushes. Above you can see Theo's picture of a walk in the park.

Theo put the finishing touches on his second picture of the bush he saw covered in butterflies.

Here are the finished works of art! Gabbie had a lot of fun with dots. I asked her what the dots meant and she looked at me as though I was a small silly child and said in her best my silly mommy voice, "Mommy they are just dots".

Barefoot Books will be planting trees in partnership with Eco-Libris, for each copy of Earth Tales sold in the till the end of April in honor of Earth Day. If you would like to purchase a copy of this fantastic new title or check out what other great books please visit my Barefoot Books site;

www.ReadingBarefootBooks.com

Or to learn more about planting trees to offset the publishing industry you can visit Eco-Libris;
www.EcoLibris.net