illustration of ink bottle and pigs in a car from Beautiful Oops!

Turn a Mistake Into Something Beautiful

Book Recommendation

Beautiful Oops!

Barney Saltzberg

We all make mistakes, but then what?

This engaging book will encourage students to turn a drip or torn paper into a work of art.

Prompting Questions:

  • Describe a time when you said "oops!"
  • Next time you accidentally drip on a piece of paper, what will you do?
  • What can you do when you make a mistake?

Related Creative Activities

Portrait of a man
Lesson Plan

A Portrait of One’s Own

After spending time exploring aspects of the Ancestor Portrait and the importance of ancestor portraits in the Chinese tradition, students will create an ancestor portrait using mixed media materials and present it to the class.

Lesson Plan

Combining Human and Animal Forms

Students will use visual observation skills to carefully examine the Assyrian Bird-Headed Deity limestone relief and explore the movement, sounds, and traits of different animals. They will first explore these aspects in humans and birds of prey, as seen in the limestone relief, and will then do the same with “animals” they create from two or more animals. This lesson enables children to draw upon previous knowledge and imagination in order to act out the movement, sounds, and other traits of the animals they create.

Lesson Plan

If You Give a Man a Horse

Students will read the book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff, explore Charles Deas’ painting Long Jakes, and exercise their imaginations to create their own cause-and-effect story.