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Could It Be?

Children will enjoy nonsensical stories and illustrate a fanciful scene.

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
  • Paper Towel Roll(s)

Steps

  • Step 1

    Read a book about a silly situation, such as "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" by Judi Barrett and Ronald Barrett or "The Nonsense Show" by Eric Carle. Have a discussion about reality vs fantasy. What were some situations that were real? How do students know when something is fanciful? Why do children think it's so important to use their imaginations?

  • Step 2

    Ask children to create a watercolor painting of a whimsical scene. It might be meatballs falling from the sky or a bird emerging from a banana peel or anything else they can imagine. To create the appearance of objects raining from the sky, students can dip a recycled paper towel roll into watercolor and then press the roll firmly on their paper. If the paper is saturated with water, the paint will spread from the central circle each time they press to print an object.

  • Step 3

    Have children present their paintings and tell a story about the scene that's taking place.

Standards

LA: Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace. 

LA: Integrate visual information (e.g., in drawings, graphics, maps, or videos) with other information to convey meaning.

Adaptations

Have children create and act out a short play about something whimsical. Encourage them to think of fanciful or nonsensical situations and imagine how someone would react to it.

Form a circle and play a "finish the story" game, where one person opens with a sentence and the next adds to it.