Exploring the Great Outdoors - Meridian International Center

David Diaz, Wilma Unlimited: How Wilma Rudolph Became the
World’s Fastest Woman
Suggested Activity:
• The repeated shapes, lines, and colors used in the painting of the relay runners from Wilma
Unlimited: How Wilma Rudolph Became the World’s Fastest Woman, illustrated by David Diaz,
contribute to the rhythm and movement in the piece.
• Read about Wilma Rudolph, the famous Olympic athlete.
• List objects, events, places, and important people in the life of Wilma Rudolph (examples: crutches,
basketball, gold medals, her church, the bus, her family members).
• Draw pictures of some of the items on your list; cut out the pictures and use them in a mobile. The
Diaz painting shows movement and rhythm; a mobile shows a different kind of movement known as
kinesthetic.
Laura Dronzek, OH!
Suggested Activity:
• Laura Dronzek’s acrylic painting from OH! is a simple scene of children building a snowrabbit.
Imagine that the sun in the painting melts the snow and suddenly it is a different time of the year. In
the spring, the children could be constructing a scarecrow instead of a snowrabbit. How would the
colors, clothes, and tree differ when the season is changed
Related Activities
• Draw a scene two ways, in two different seasons. Apply color. Do you use the same colors for both
pictures
Arthur Geisert, Pigs from A to Z
Suggested Activity:
• After sharing this book with your students, explain that the artist used a printmaking technique
called etching. Show them how they may also make prints right in the classroom by using
potatoes. After cutting a potato in half, simply cut away pieces leaving a raised design in the
potato. Press the potato on paper towels until it is fairly dry. Now press it on a stamp pad and
you are ready to make prints on drawing paper. Your students can now make their own potato
prints. They should be encouraged to share their potatoes in order to make an interesting design
on one sheet of drawing paper. Each student can then think of an appropriate title for their
artwork and write it at the bottom of the sheet. These could then be used to create an interesting
classroom bulletin board.
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