- container of watered-down black paint
- crayons
- newspaper
- Night in the Country by Cynthia Rylant (book)
- white drawing paper
- wide brush
- country
- house
- loud
- moon
- night
- nighttime
- sky
- soft
- star
- sound
MA Standards:
Speaking and Listening/SL.PK.MA.5: Create representations of experiences or stories (e.g., drawings, constructions with blocks or other materials, clay models) and explain them to others.
Writing/W.PK.MA.2: Use a combination of dictating and drawing to explain information about a topic.
Head Start Outcomes:
Approaches to Learning/Initiative and Curiosity: Demonstrates flexibility, imagination, and inventiveness in approaching tasks and activities.
Literacy Knowledge/Early Writing: Uses scribbles, shapes, pictures, and letters to represent objects, stories, experiences, or ideas.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
English Language Arts/Composition 16: Use their own words or illustrations to describe their experiences, tell imaginative stories, or communicate information about a topic of interest.
Night Scenes
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
Skill Focus: Creative Expression, Fine Motor Skills, Vocabulary
Look at and talk about some of the illustrations in Night in the Country. Talk about the soft and loud sounds featured in the book and their sources, and have children draw a new scene that includes both loud and soft sounds. Tell them not to color the sky. Explain that when they are done coloring, you will help them cover their picture with a thin layer of black paint. The black paint will not stick to the crayon. It will stick only to the part of the paper where there are no crayon marks, painting the sky black. Cover the table with newspaper before using a wide brush to apply the paint. Ask children to describe their night scenes. Hang their scenes in the Art Center for display.