Creative Approaches to Teaching Reading through Art

National Art Education Association

Creative Approaches to Teaching Reading through ArtAuthor(s): Nicholas P. CriscuoloSource: Art Education, Vol. 38, No. 6 (Nov., 1985), pp. 13-16Published by: National Art Education AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3192871 .

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Creative Approaches To Teaching Reading Through Art Nicholas P. Criscuolo

In this article ... Criscuola suggests a number of activities that interrelate art

and reading. "Palettes, crayons,

and paint can be just as effective in

teaching reading as workbooks and

dittos."

Photo credit: Dr. Barry E. Herman, Director, Public Information Office, New Haven School System, 200 Orange St., New Haven, CT 06510.

M a eaybe there's a budding Picasso, Grandma Moses, or Rembrandt in your classroom. It could

be that although their artistic talent is obvious, their reading skills need to be sharpened. Maybe you have children who can't draw or sketch well, but can read well. You note their enthusiasm during art class.

Most kids like art, and that's something you can capitalize on when it comes to the teaching of reading. Reading and art have one very impor- tant thing in common: both offer pleasure to the child. Reading brings pleasure, but sometimes kids tire of the workbook exercises and drill sheets designed to teach necessary skills. Is there a way out of this dilemma? Of course, combine reading and art activities. Reading and art mix perfectly, and the remainder of this article will describe fifteen activities that teach and reinforce reading skills through art

media. 1. Costume Sketches - Have chil-

dren pick a favorite story character and write a short paragraph about him or her. Now ask them to devise a costume for the character selected. This can be done by having the children trace each other's body outline on a piece of butcher paper. Each child can then sketch his or her costume idea over the shape. The sketches can be cut out in- cluding tabs to be folded around the child at the waist, shoulders, face, wrist and ankles. Have children use their imaginations and decorate their costume sketches with paints, yarn, glitter and so on.

2. Famous Faces - Secure from ice cream shops or merchants some three- gallon empty ice cream tubs. Using a variety of media - construction paper, paint, feathers, and yarn, have the children decorate the tub so it resembles the face of a famous person read about in a book, magazine, or newspaper. On

a small file card, ask the children to write a few sentences about this person's contribution to society.

3. Vacation Souvenirs - Set up a display table, and ask the children to bring in at least one object showing something they did during a vacation period. It might be as simple as a post- card showing a scene of one of the places visited.

Ask the child to prepare a paragraph to accompany the object that offers some insight into the vacation time activity. The child can read the paragraph aloud as she or he shows the object and then attach it to the object for viewing at the display table.

4. Matching Shapes - In one column use squares of colors - red, yellow and blue - to correspond to a column of color words (in random order) beside it. Have the child draw a line from the color square to the printed word.

The child draws a line from the word

Art Education November 1985 13



Photo credit: Mary Boyle, New Haven, CT.



shape to the corresponding word. Ex- ample:

red - ,-'

yellow --' ..

O vblue e-' n" 1

Other art vocabulary can be used in the same way. As an art activity, just the configurations can be used by having children imagine what each con- figuration reminds them of and make a picture or design from them.

5. Pleasure Scenes - Give each child brown wrapping paper about 12"x 30". Have the child crumple and straighten the paper five times until it has a soft texture, then with cotton swabs paint a picture of a scene from a book or story. A good idea is to have the scene depict the main idea of the story.

6. Tongue Twisters - Children enjoy reading and writing tongue twisters. Ask children to illustrate the following tongue twisters:

1. The sun shines on shop signs. 2. Fannie fried five fish in a frying

pan. 3. Peter Piper picked a peck of pick-

led peppers. 4. She sells sea shells by the seashore. 5. Bonnie Banks bought a big bag of

beets. Ask children to also write their own

tongue twisters, swap them with their classmates, and illustrate them. These illustrated tongue twisters make an at- tractive bulletin board display.

7. Book Review Collage - A collage is an artistic arrangement of different shapes and sizes centered around a main idea or theme. Ask the children to pick a book they have read recently and make a book review collage. Have them look through newspapers and magazines and cut out words and pic- tures that best illustrate the basic idea of the book. Let the children add bits of cloth, gift wrap, aluminum foil or any other material they feel adds color and balance to the collage.

8. Personality Puppets - Ask the children to select a famous person and make a facsimile puppet of this person. To make the bodies and head, have on hand clothespins, ice cream sticks and cups, cardboard tubes from paper towels, scraps of yarn and other material.

Have the children obtain a photo-


:aR i:



graph of this famous person from fan magazines, newspapers, or television guides. They can cut out the face, back it with a piece of cardboard and attach it to a "neck" made from an ice cream stick and fasten the stick to the top of the puppet.

Suggest that the children do some research on the famous person they selected and to write notes which they can refer to when displaying their puppet and give a short oral report on this famous person.

9. Scrambled Sentences - Children will enjoy using scrambled sentences and then illustrating them. First the pupils must unscramble the sentences and then illustrate them. Examples:

1. two refrigerator in quarts there milk are of the

2. dress Marge a lace pretty wore red it on with

3. two pond three ducks are the in 4. snow it last started to night last 10. Cloudy Issues - Combine art

with increasing the students' awareness of current issues e.g. budget deficits, inflation, the environment, world hunger, and so on. Have children first cut fleecy-shaped clouds from doubled pieces of white construction paper or heavy wrapping paper. Cut thin, curv- ing shapes from a double cloud and paste light blue tissue paper on the back of one piece over cutout areas. Paste clouds together and hang on the bulletin board.

Have the children scour newspapers and magazines to locate articles which discuss these issues and have them paste these articles on the clouds for reading by the entire class.

11. Poetry Cards - To increase the enjoyment of poetry, have the children make a poetry card. Ask them to fold a piece of construction paper of the color and size desired for the card. On the inside, glue a piece of fabric and push a threaded needle into the fabric. On the side opposite the "needle holder", they can write either an original poem or select one written by their favorite poet. The poems selected can be taped for further enrichment.

12. Travel Quilts - Have children read about different parts of the coun- try and world and make a co-operative quilt. Have the children select a scene from the locale chosen and distribute one 10" paper square to each student. Suggest that the students sketch their ideas in crayon and then use water-

200vV O.. . N. . UI n ., "ILCT 0650.

200 Orange St., New Haven, CT 06510.







proof markers to redraw the design on the same size sailcloth or embroidery floss square.

After the squares are finished, the children can then sew them to a large piece of cotton fabric with a muslin backing.

13. Book Motivators - Fill ten containers with book reading motivators. Have students collect empty coffee cans or potato chip containers. Make an art project out of decorating the cans. Use scraps of construction paper, cloth, or wallpaper as the background for designs made from fringe, felt, rickrack, and ribbon.

In each container have the children put in six or seven objects mentioned in a book. Have the student who filled the container write the title of the book and a short, captivating paragraph on how these objects figured into the book. Don't give the entire plot away as it should be written in such a way that will motivate the child to read the book after viewing the objects and reading the paragraph.

14. Book Snails - Children should be encouraged to read in a variety of areas and keep a record of their reading. "Book Snails" will ac- complish both these goals.

Draw the outline of a snail on a duplicating master. Then draw about 20 rectangles in a coiled path inside the body of the snail. In each box write "Read a (name of type of book e.g.

science fiction, biography, mystery, etc.). After the student reads one of the types named, he or she colors that rec- tangle.

15. Shadow Panels - To add dra- matic effect for pupils telling a story to the class or narrating a play, ask students to make "shadow panels." Have them cut silhouettes of characters and scenes from colored construction paper. These silhouettes can be mounted on a sheet of white tissue paper, and covered with another sheet of white tissue. As pupils tell the story, they can show a shadow panel for each scene, holding it up against the light so that the silhouettes stand out. Concluding Remarks Reading is not a subject - it is a skill that can be integrated in a variety of ways with other subjects. Art is par- ticularly appropriate because it lends itself to a whole host of activities. Combining art with reading doubles the student's pleasure. Teachers who have used these activities report good success with them because they result in enthusiasm for both reading and art. Students don't have to have the talent of a Chagall or a Van Gogh. Palettes, crayons, and paint can be just as effective in teaching reading as workbooks and dittos. U

Nicholas P. Criscuolo is a supervisor of reading in the New Haven, Connect- icut, Public Schools.

November 1985 16 Art Education



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Creative Approaches to Teaching Reading through Art