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Chinese Art
Teacher's Resource
Lesson Plan: Chinese Folktales, Poetry & Music
Lessons submitted by: Patti Burkhardt
Constructing
Art to Illustrate a Story
Grades PreK-2:
Sunshine State Standards: VAA111, VAA112, VAA113, VAA114, VAB113,
VAB114, VAC111, VAC112
Goal:
This activity will ready Grades 3-5 students for their visit to the
Naples Art Museum where the Gow
Collection will be explored. There are related lessons for Grades
3-5 and Grades 6-12. Another lesson
is also provided for an on-site tour of the museum.
Background Information:
The ancient Chinese invented paper, gunpowder, matches, the compass,
a seismograph to measure earthquakes, the umbrella, and more! They created
peofound philosophies, gorgeous art, and great legends. Even their money
was neat. Coins had a hole in their center. There were not any banks,
so people stored and kept their coins by running a string through the
center. A thousand coins strung together was called a string of money.
Ancient China covers
11,000 years of history divided into big blocks
of time called dynasties.
Ancient Story:
On a warm spring
day, in Xia (Hsia) times, some children went out in the fields to
play. In those days, if you had a problem, you went to see the local
wise woman. In this village, the wise woman's name was Loawnu. (low
AH noo)
Alarmed at what they saw in the fields, the children ran up the hill
to Loawnu's house. "Loawnu," they shouted. "The sky
is falling down!" Loawnu smiled at the children. "Don't
be worried. Find all the pieces of sky that have fallen, and bring
them to me. I'll sew them together again in time for the festival."
The spring festival was nearing. This was a time when the young people
gathered from many villages to meet one another and to find husbands
and wives. The children's village had been honored this year as the
meeting village. It would be a horrible time for the sky to fall down.
The village would be disgraced! Off the children ran to pick up the
pieces. But some were missing! "Loawnu!" cried the children,
as they dashed up the hill, breathing heavily. "Pieces of the
sky are missing. What will we do?" Loawnu only smiled.
The next day, the children ran outside and looked up. The sky looked
as it always looked on a warm spring day, clean and fresh and blue.
They were so happy. That night, they were amazed! The sky had always
been dark at night. That night, it was filled with light! Loawnu had
patched the missing pieces of sky with bright twinkling light! "How
beautiful! How clever! We shall have the happiest spring festival
in all the land! How lucky we are to know Loawnu!" All the village
agreed.
Materials:
paper, watercolor paints, crayons, scissors, glue
Teacher Preparation:
The study and use of storytelling techniques in retelling the ancient
story of Loawnu and the sky. Bring in an example of stitchery for the
students. Provide traditional Chinese music for background music.
Vocabulary:
Activity Description:
- Students listen
to and then retell the story with the help of the teacher.
- Items of importance
are written down on the board, such as when the story took place,
the characters in the story, the problem, and Loawnu's solution.
- Students incorporate
these key points into their paintings to better illustrate this ancient
Chinese folktale.
- The sky is
painted dark blue and black on original painting. An additional piece
of paper is painted bright yellow.
- The students
will make a mosaic-like sky or "sky pieces" from the yellow
paper by cutting and gluing them over the original blue-black sky
of the painting.
NOTE: For the added
effect of Loawnu's stitchwork, students can draw in pencil the pieces
of the sky and then in yellow crayon draw stitch marks around each piece
when gluing on the yellow sky colors. This will further help to illustrate
the story.
Suggested Resources:
"Effective Storytelling, A manual for beginners"
http://www.seanet.com/~eldrbarry/roos/eest.html
Assessment of
Effort / Perseverance
Rubric
- 4- The
project was continued until it was as complete as the student could
make it; the student gave effort far beyond that required; the student
took pride in going well beyond the requirement.
- 3- The
student worked hard and completed the project, but with a little more
effort it might have been outstanding.
- 2- The
student finished the project, but it could have been improved with
more effort; there was adequate interpretation of the assignment,
but the student neglected the finishing touches; or the student chose
an easy project and did it indifferently.
- 1- The
project was mostly completed with a few loose ends left off; the student
displayed minimum involvement and lackadaisical effort.
- 0- The
student did not adequately finish major portions of the work.
Here are related
lessons for Grades 3-5 and Grades
6-12.
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