Skip to Main Content

Artful Stories

Creative writing meets artful illustrations as students write a fanciful story and convey it in a drawing.

Lesson Plan

Supplies Needed

Gather all the supplies needed to bring your craft ideas to life! From paints and markers to glue and scissors, our crafts section has everything to spark creativity and make every project truly special.

  • Paper

Steps

  • Step 1

    "What if" questions are powerful tools that foster creativity, enhance problem solving, and improve decision making. They can be employed in many situations at home, at school, in social settings, and at work. Ask students to think about and discuss times when they had trouble beginning a project or picking a topic to write about. For this lesson, have them start with a simple subject to use as the premise for a story. It might be a sports event, a favorite food, a cute animal, or anything else.

  • Step 2

    Ask students to write a story around a subject they chose by asking "what if" questions. Examples might include, "What if that cuddly dog met an aloof cat, and what if the dog tried to befriend the cat? How would the dog win the cat over?" "What if I invited friends over to share my favorite dish with me, and what if I ran out of a key ingredient after starting the recipe? How could I make it all work out?" Encourage them to stretch their imaginations and be creative with the scenarios they depict.

  • Step 3

    When the story is written, ask students to illustrate a scene that captures the gist of the story. Then have them hold up their artwork and ask classmates what they think the story might be about. Display the stories along with their illustrations.

Standards

LA: Add drawings or other visual displays to written text to clarify ideas, thoughts, and feelings.

LA: Develop real and imagined narratives.

SEL: Self-Awareness: Recognize one’s strengths, emotions, and limitations with a well-grounded sense of confidence and purpose.

Adaptations

The "Yes, and..." technique used in improv is another method that fosters creativity. Have students form small groups to collaboratively create an impromptu story. One member of the group will open with a sentence, and subsequent members will add a sentence, each building on (without ever negating) the previous addition.

To continue with the "what if" and "Yes, and..." techniques, have each student think of three or four nouns, people, or events and write them on a slip of paper. Put the words in a box and ask students to pick three pieces of paper from the hat. Then challenge them to incorporate the three of them in a cohesive and perhaps silly story.