Monday, May 5, 2014

(Not So) Sweet Dream Pie

Introducing narrative art to the 1st grade crew is not always easy.  They tend to lean on words to tell their stories, and it's a struggle to get them to draw the action, and leave off the words and arrows (you know, the word tree pointing to the tree in the picture?).  I don't know what made me think of trying this method, but it worked very well, and it's going in the "Keeper" file.  I read the kids the book "Sweet Dream Pie"; a cute story about a group of neighbors who eat too much sweet pie- and their dreams are not so sweet.  We then made 3 lists - a list of characters, or creatures, a list of actions, and a list of places.  Students were to pick one from each list, and create a picture- perhaps a giraffe, jumping rope at a birthday party?  The crazier the better.  This method allowed students to have a concrete thing to draw, but also allowed great freedom of choice.  I did lead them in constructing a "pie".  It was a good review on cutting/basic craftsmanship and direction following, and it gave my more hesitant artists some comfort.


A Giraffe wearing a birthday hat at his party.


A cat, jumpng rope in outer space