In Jan Brett's "Armadillo Rodeo," Bo, a Texas armadillo, mistakes a pair of cowboy boots for a friend and follows them all the way to a rodeo. Once there, he gets to do all the fun rodeo things he's been dreaming of. Make your own Bo. Glue the tops of two paper plates together. Repeat to make nine sets which represent the nine disks of the armadillo. Glue the disks together. Roll another paper plate into a cone shape and use for his snout. Add a spiral tail made out of the cut edge of a plate. Crease paper towel rolls and cut in half. Insert four of them between the disks to make legs. Draw a face on the snout and add white painted beans to the top to make leathery skin.
In "The Mitten," a little boy in the Ukraine drops his white mitten in the snow. One by one, many different animals crawl into the mitten to find warmth. Even a brown bear manages to work his way in. Draw two mittens on cardboard and cut out. On the first mitten, write descriptive words that you find in the story, such as plump, snug and warm. On the other mitten, write words that are the exact opposite of the first set of words. Teach the class the meaning of opposite and let them work with the words to pair them. For a different exercise, give each child a cardboard mitten and let him draw and color the animals that crawled inside.
"The Umbrella" is a book about a Costa Rican rainforest. Carlos walks in the forest hoping to see the many exotic animals that inhabit that territory. He drops his green umbrella, only to later find animal after animal hopping or flying into it. Create a tropical rainforest in your own classroom. Pin a 3-foot-by-6-foot piece of white mural paper on the wall. Give each child an animal or plant that lives in the rainforest to draw and color. When the pictures are all finished, tack the animals and plants up on the mural. Draw a green umbrella to put on the bottom. Team this mural project with a lesson about rainforests and the animals that inhabit them.
On the Jan Brett website, janbrett.com, Brett has accumulated many free activities for fans of her books. There are literally hundreds of projects to do: pages to color; borders, flashcards and signs for classrooms; online postcards and stationery to send; cookie recipes; masks to cut out; play ideas; as well as descriptions of all her books. There are videos on how to draw her animals, contests to enter and even a quiz to suggest what book of hers you would like to read. Jan Brett has a Facebook page where parents can go to get a daily page to color.