von der Bibliothek: "Ollie and Moon," Plus a Craft

In between travels, one of our favorite ways to explore the world is through books. If the book is von der Bibliothek, all the better! A current house fave, from our local library, is Random House's Ollie and Moon, by Diane Kredensor and Sandra Kress.

When Kredensor and Kress team up their talents, quite a unique style ensues! Kredensor superimposes her adorable stylized characters atop Kress's photographs of Paris. They add some French words and landmarks, a cute and simple plot, et voilà! A lively romp around the City of Light, without even getting off the couch!

 

Make Your Own Ollie and Moon-esque Story-Telling Set

After reading the book trente-six fois, and watching the cute video a couple more times, we just had to make an activity out of Ollie and Moon. Thanks to Kredensor and Kress's inspiration, only a craft  would suffice for this project! Don't panic: it's an easy one.

Etes-vous prêtes? Okay. Grab these things:

• a few old magazines or calendars
• a couple of sheets of white paper
• some markers
• scissors and glue

Got 'em? Okay, now have students draw some fun characters, cut them out, and superimpose them onto pictures from the magazines and calendars. Have them tell a story as they present their chef-d'oeuvre to the class.

You can go as big or as simple with this as time and imagination allow. Around here... well, let's just say Mag wasn't feeling the cutting/drawing so much, but she knocked the story-telling out of the park.

Here are some of the scenes that our characters, Snowy der Scheeman and Kingy King, visited while we narrated.

Et vous? Any favorite "destination" children's books? Do share!

Glossary

von der Bibliothek (German) = from the library
trente-six fois (French) = literally "36 times," a French expression for "many times"
Etes-vous prêtes? (French) = Are you ready?
chef-d'oeuvre (French) = work of art
der Schneeman (German) = the snowman
Et vous? (French) = And you?

This post will be linked up to "Tell Me a Tale Tuesday" at Keeping Life Creative.