ART-ticulate Teaching: Art inspired by the book the "Calabash Cat" by James Rumford- First Grade

To introduce this lesson, I had students listen to the book without seeing the pictures. As I read, they drew the story from their imagination. I gave them a few minutes once I was done reading to color or add details, so that I could talk with the students about their drawings and what characters in the book they drew.

After we completed this exercise, I read the book again. This time I displayed the pictures as I read. Students were able to share with the class what they included in their drawings after we read the book for the second time. We talked about how everyone drew the cat because it was the main character. We also spoke about the other animal characters and how the students drew them. We then turned our attention to the way James Rumford illustrated the characters in the book and the traditional designs he used from Chad. After identifying the lines and shapes he used, each student received a cut out "Calabash Cat" the next day in art. They were given an idea sheet of designs from the "Calabash Cat" drawings. Students decorated their cats with different kinds of lines and shapes found from the book.

Students then outlined them with black marker and glued their background with strips of color to resemble a rainbow like the rainbow colors that followed the cat throughout the book. We talked about the symbolism of the rainbow and how then end of a rainbow can't be found just like the "Calabash Cat" couldn't find where the world ends. The last step for the project was to glue the cat onto the rainbow background.