With the Easter holiday upon us, I know many teachers like to read the story Rechenka's Eggs by Patricia Polacco. In the story, the eggs are decorated in the Ukranian style called pysanky.* (She also shows the style in the story Chicken Sunday.)
*For those of you who aren't aware, Patricia Polacco's grandmother was of Russian descent and showed Patricia how to decorate the eggs Ukranian style.
As an activity, I read Chicken Sunday to my students as part of our study on Patricia Polacco. Once we read about the part of the characters decorating the eggs, I stop and explain the process to the students before finishing the story. Once the story is finished, I take the students to the computer lab to view a site about pysanky and see a clip online. (We don't have Smartboards or laptop projectors for every room, so the easiest way for me to do it is to take the children to the lab and use the projector there. You do whatever works for you.)
Anyhow, we visit Eve's Eggs, a site of egg artist Eve Butterly. Her site covers the history of pysanky, the different styles/techniques used for decorating, and features a gallery of eggs that she has done for occasions from weddings to baptisms. There is also a link on her homepage that will take you to a videoclip of her creating one of the eggs featured in her gallery. She does a very good job of demonstrating and explaining the process as she goes along.
(FYI: If you can find a video clip from Reading Rainbow Program Episode #84 (the one that features Rechenka's Eggs), Patricia Polacco herself will demonstrate the process. That's actually the first place I saw it years ago, but I can't seem to find the whole clip online. If you find it, please send me the link in the comment box and I'll share it!)
Anyhow, after we visit the sites and watch the videos, I allow the students to create their own version of the pysanky egg. I provide each student with a sheet of white drawing paper and a tracer of an egg large enough to fill the space. I also give them guidelines as to what types of shapes and colors should be used on the eggs. Past that, I allow them to create their own. We began the project today; I will post some of the final designs tomorrow. They are coming along great!
Stay tuned!
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