J is for Jellybeans

J is for Jellybeans and the Big Art Adventure by Laura Numeroff and Nate Evans, illustrated by Lynn Munsinger which I shared today with the first graders.  It was a perfect follow up book to yesterday’s selection, ish.

The Jellybeans are a group of girls who are different but go well together, just like jellybeans. Bitsy loves to paint and her talents land her with the opportunity to paint a wall outside of the local candy shop.  The girls head to an art museum for inspiration. Unfortunately, Bitsy can’t think of a thing to paint until she is inspired by her friends and comes up with a great idea! This is a good book that celebrates differences between people and shows how they can be combined their talents to create something wonderful.

The class shared jellybeans and tried to guess the flavors as we discussed where to find ideas. Eating jellybeans seemed to help the kiddos generate numerous ideas of things to draw and write about.

Speaking of jellybeans, the Jelly Belly Factory is a great place to visit. The factory is located in Fairfield, California in the SF Bay area. They are open daily (except major holidays) but the machines are in operation only on weekdays. My children loved the tour – especially the hats and trying different flavored jellybeans.

They have a good website which includes a video: https://jellybelly.com/Info/VirtualTour/virtual_tour

Like the Jellybeans who used a blank wall as a canvas, anytime I have painted or remodeled, I let the my children and their friends paint murals on the walls. In fact, that was the activity for my youngest daughter’s birthday one year. Her friends still talk about it!