October 8, 2010

Read and Draw

I tried something new today! I like to call it Read and Draw. It is pretty much exactly as it sounds.
I read from a story, The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle and along the way we stop to draw. 


First we stopped to draw a fence to spin our web on. We began our web just as the spider did in the story and stopped along the way to weave more of our web. Students made insects in the web and finally their very busy spider.

Students can paint over oil pastels with watercolors to get this effect. Oil pastels on black paper also get the job done in less time!  This is great to do with classes who need practice following directions. I was impressed with how engaged they were during this Read and Draw and how carefully they listened to the story and directions!






7 comments:

Brittney said...

I like the project, very cute.

Jacquelien said...

What a good idea to do during Children Books Ppromotion Week; I don't know if there is such a week in the USa?

Anne Farrell said...

Cool idea!

Phyl said...

My thoughts exactly - Cool idea! I can see this really keeping the kids engaged in the book, and also in their art. Is it hard to stop them from drawing to pick back up on the story before the next step?

I'm curious - I don't see the fences in the pics you posted - were they done as part of the same drawing/paintings?

Unknown said...

Their fences were basically a frame around their picture I had to crop to keep their info off last name/teacher :(

If they didn't finish drawing (a few of them didn't) I let them work while listening. The rest of the kids were entertained with the book. It was a simple book too which helps. I want to work out this idea more because I think it could make some really original illustrations. . . maybe poetry with an older class? Some poem that would inspire an abstract piece might be cool so they aren't hung up on making a likeness.

Unknown said...

Maybe that poem that goes with the Charles Demuth painting number 5! I can imagine reading the poem first with a really high level class and having them sketch images in their notebook as a warm up and than showing them what Demuth imagined.

Unknown said...

The Great Figure
Among the rain
and lights
I saw the figure 5
in gold
on a red
fire truck
moving
tense
unheeded
to gong clangs
siren howls
and wheels rumbling
through the dark city

William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)
Sour Grapes: A Book of Poems
Four Seas Company, Boston, 1921