Painting the Sky

Tomie De Paola's book The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush is a story about a Native American boy who is different from the other boys.  He is a talented artist.  He makes beautiful artwork confidently, until he tries to paint a beautiful sunset.  None of his paints seem bright enough.

This legend explains the beautiful colors of sunsets by telling of how the young artist used wildflowers to paint the bright colors.   I decided to read this story to the K-1 Multi-Age class as part of our Native American unit.

We compared this legend to one we read last week about Egyptians. They believed  a scarab moved the sun.  We compared how the boy made his paint and canvas to our lesson about the Book of Kells.  Celtic monks made paint from natural materials and canvas from animal skin, just like the Native American character in this story.  We compared the storytelling element of Native American art to that art of Aborigines in Australia.  It is fun to see them make connections between all of our cultural projects.  It's great for them to see how very different cultures can have similar traditions.  

I had the students paint a colorful background with watercolors, having them notice warm colors mentioned in the text. They used a wet on wet wash of warm colors for their sky.

I then had them use pipe cleaners, green tape and yarn to create their own wildflowers.   I had them imagine the flowers as paintbrushes.  They had fun "painting" the sky.

I attached the flowers down using hot glue.  

They got practice using fine motor skills.

They reviewed warm colors.

And I think they had fun!

Avnita with her "paintbrush"

Marco wrapping his tape

Daniel with his "paintbrush"

Niylah Finishing a Flower