Une table nature comme Leo Lionni
Les créations et discussions autour de l’album illustré « Cornelius » de Leo Lionni, montrent à quel point l’approche littéraire et esthétique pratiquée au quotidien permet de créer un cadre dans lequel l’apprentissage langagier devient authentique.
Un intérêt particulier a été porté sur la biographie de Leo Lionni, qui, pendant son enfance (et puis à l’âge adulte) possédait dans sa chambre une table artistique ainsi qu’une table nature.
Par l’entremise d’une table nature au sein de l’école, les enfants ont créé des œuvres qui reflètent leur besoin de s’exprimer.
Voici ce qu’en dit Leo Lionni :
The second table that I had was a table which I called my nature table, and on this table, I had everything that had to do with the animals I was interested in. I had an aquarium and a terrarium there. I would make little landscapes with pebbles and sand and moss and stones.
I remember that I was always interested in small things, and I was a collector at heart. I would collect everything that I was interested in.
And this was not an ordinary mess I had, you know. I had living animals and birds, fish, turtles. I even had caterpillars in a closet once, and they opened a closet in the springtime, and butterflies flew out.
All my characters that are in my stories are smaller than the page, so that they can move around on the page the way they moved around in my aquarium and terrarium.
What really motivates people to become an artist is the need to make things. It’s a basic, vital need.
