We read Cuckoo by Lois Ehlert. It's a mexican story about a beautiful bird who's notorious for singing while the other animals work hard to collect seeds. One night a fire starts and the seeds are in danger of becoming engulfed by the flames, ruining the animals' efforts. The only one awake, Cuckoo saves the seeds. But flying so close the fire turns her colorful feathers black and her eyes red. The moral of the story, "you can't judge a bird by its feathers." The story is illustrated with beautiful paper cutouts which we used to review the difference between symmetry and balance. The students also learned rhythm. Rhythm is when a picture has similar shapes, colors, or lines repeated throughout the picture to create flow. If you look at the cover, you can see certain shapes, such as zig-zags and rounded lines, repeat in various sizes and colors. 
The students created mexican suns, a symbol of happiness, with balance and rhythm. First drawn in crayon. Then painted over with watercolor.
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