Story Land Mural

Art/Language Arts Activity

WHAT YOU NEED

• Mural paper
• Paints and paintbrushes
• Smocks
• A collection of storybooks children have read or listened to

WHAT TO DO

1. Ask children to name some of their favorite characters from the stories they have read. List the characters on the board or on chart paper. If you have books with pictures of the characters, show them to the children as each character is mentioned.

2. Tell children that they are going to paint a mural (a very large painting) of all their favorite story characters. Explain that the first step is to choose a setting for the mural. Do they want to paint story characters at the beach? On a picnic? In a classroom? Or playing baseball? Discuss all suggestions.

3. Next, have children sketch in pencil on the mural paper whatever background they have chosen. Lightly label, or have children label, the different parts of the setting. This will help guide children when they begin painting. Then discuss with children where on the mural each character will appear and what each character will be doing. Mark on the mural where each character will appear. You may want to have children actually sketch the characters on the mural.

4. When the mural has been planned out, assign children to paint different parts of the mural. You may want children to paint only the background first. Or, you may want to have partners work on certain characters. Then have children put on their smocks and begin painting.

5. When the mural is finished, invite another class to view it. Have volunteers point out the different story characters and tell what story each character is from.

TEACHING OPTIONS

• Have a character search. Invite another class to view the mural. One at a time, read aloud the character names (from a list of characters on the mural) and have volunteers point to each character on the mural.
• Choose a story and have children work in groups to create smaller murals that depict four or five scenes from the story.