Not A Box
Integrating Art and Writing through Imagination (Virtual Tour)
Stage of Literacy Development:
Stage 2: Consolidation / FluencyStage 3: Literacy for Growth
Ages:
7-10
Grade Range:
2nd 3rd 4thFood Groups:
Primary: Text Structures & Genres
Transcript
This is an example of how I integrate our read-aloud books with art and with writing. This is a book called Not a Box, and in this book, the character uses his imagination to imagine a box as many different things. For example, It's not a box, its a mountain. And the rabbit climbs up to the top of the mountain. It's not a box, its a robot. So, what I have the children do, is use their imagination to think about what a box could be. I give them each a small box, and they're to think about how they're going to transform the box into something different. Then they're going to write a story about the box, using the box as their main character. Here's an example of a finished product. I had the child hold up their box, and I took a photograph of them. And then, they wrote a story about their box using their imagination. And I think at this point in the year, we were really looking at the children using a lot of adjectives in their stories. They wrote a rough copy in their journal, they then edited their work making sure their word wall words were spelled correctly; then I had them do a good copy. I don't have them do everything as a good copy; just selected projects. Then I gave them free reign with a lot of different art materials: oil pastels, scrap pieces of construction paper, tape, etc. And then they were to transform the box into their new character. This child chose to make her box into a sponge. So then I took a second picture of them with their transformed box.
Related References
Activity Objective
The goal of Not A Box: Integrating Art and Writing through Imagination (Virtual Tour) is to provide students with an opportunity to practice narrative writing and to develop an understanding of the characteristics of a narrative.
Quick Tips
Additional Comments:
- Have students use their imagination to create new objects from other given objects, like a ruler or a bucket. - Explicitly teach the characteristics of a narrative. For instance, a narrative includes characters, a problem and a solution. - Model how to write a narrative. You may wish to color-code the beginning, middle and end of your story. - Encourage students to share their stories during an author's chair.
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Bubble Diagram: A Pre-Writing Strategy for Stories
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Fairy Tale Checklist: Understanding the Structure of a Fairy Tale (Virtual Tour)
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Magnet Man: Integrating Science and Literacy through Writing (Virtual Tour)
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Student Made Books: Promoting the Enjoyment of Writing (Virtual Tour)
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