Pages

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Legend Of The Indian Paintbrush


During our study of Sioux Indians we read Legend of the Indian Paintbrush by Tommie De Paola. It is about a boy named Little Gopher who can't run and wrestle like the other boys. His gift is drawing and keeping the stories of his tribe. One day he has a dream-vision about painting a beautiful sunset. He struggles to find the colors he needs to paint it, until one day he finds paintbrushes in the dirt. These paintbrushes are the perfect colors and he paints the sunset from his dream-vision. He leaves the paintbrushes in the dirt and the next day he finds that the hills of Texas are abloom in amazing color. This is a great story to discuss talent and trying even when it is hard. To end the day we painted sunsets. I wanted my students to be able to paint on something that resembled buckskin. I came up with the idea of tortillas. The kids looked at me a like I was nuts, but they were good sports and enthusiastic about painting. I put out dabs of red, white, pink, orange, and yellow paint for each student to find the right combination to paint their sunset. I really think they look beautiful!

No comments:

Post a Comment