Exploring the Great Outdoors - Meridian International Center

Related Activities
Mary Azarian, A Farmer’s Alphabet
Suggested Activity:
• Here is an easy way to make a single print without fancy tools: trim the raised edge from a
Styrofoam plate, or use a flat piece of Styrofoam made especially for art projects. Draw a
design on the material with watercolor markers, remembering that everything on the finished
print will be backwards (write words backwards on the Styrofoam if you choose to add words to
the design). Work quickly so the marker ink does not dry! Carefully lay a piece of paper (good
tissue paper will work) over the design, making sure the paper is big enough to cover the design,
and rub the paper with your fingers; peel the paper from the Styrofoam. The material can be
wiped clean with a damp paper towel and a new design can be created!
Donald Carrick, The Climb
Suggested Activity:
• The boy and girl in Donald Carrick’s art appear to have discovered a cave and are about to begin
exploring it. Encourage your students to discuss the pros and cons of doing such a thing. What
will they need if they do, indeed, decide to go into the cave What might they find in the cave
You may want to share one or two of the following books in order to help the creative juices!
Tell the children they will help to make a “reading cave” in the classroom. Have a large
cardboard box big enough to hold one sitting child reading a book. The box will have to be
painted black. Now the children should design, draw, and/or paint objects they might find in the
cave. These may be cut out and either hung on black thread from the ceiling of the “cave” or
attached to the walls. Now place a pillow on the floor of the cave along with some of the
following books: Maroo of the Winter Caves by Ann Turnbull; The Mystery in the Cave by
Gertrude Chandler Warner; Caves and Caverns by Gail Gibbons; The Mystery of the Haunted
Caves by Penny Warner; Caves: Hidden World by Claude Delafosse; Caves by Larry Dane
Brimner; Painters of the Caves by Patricia Lauber; and The Caves that Time Forgot by Gilbert
Morris.
Related Activities
Jill Chambers, Ask Me If I’m a Frog
Suggested Activity:
• Ask the students if they have ever been swimming. Where What was the most fun they ever
had in the water Now talk about the girl and what she encounters while swimming. What
would they do if they swam into a giant frog What else do they see in the art Tell students
that they are to use crayons to draw themselves in an underwater scene along with all of the
things they might find around them. When finished, they will use blue watercolor to paint over
the entire page. This will create a crayon resist painting giving an underwater effect.
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