Another great idea is to use the images to tell a story. You can use all of the elements that were mentioned above to continue this next activity. Each child can work individually or in small groups. However you will want to model this activity before letting the students do this independently. Choose images that can tell a story.
George Stubbs
made 4 paintings entitled
Two Gentlemen Going A Shooting, with a view of Creswell Crags
,
Taken on the Spot
1767,
Two Gentlemen Shooting
1768,
Two Gentlemen Shooting
1769 and
A Repose after Shooting
1770. All of these paintings are also located in the Yale Center for British Art. I think these images would be a great way to teach how to write the plot of a story. They depict two men with their hunting dogs. Each scene shows a day's work hunting birds. The way these images are laid out would be perfect for a beginning, middle and end. Let the students be creative and think of a paragraph for each image. Later you can use this to teach editing and revising, but for now focus on getting the conversation and writing centered around the images.
Example:
"Charlie, today is a beautiful day to go hunting for those birds you have been wanting to get." Henry was always excited to start the day hunting. The weather was perfect. Not to cold and not to hot. The clouds were slowly making their way west as the sun rose higher and higher. You could hear the mill in the distances turning as the water splashed it's way back into the river. The hounds were always ready for Charlie and Henry's call. They could not wait to get those birds. Especially the one that got away the last time Charlie and Henry took the hounds out to hunting. "This is the day Henry. We are going to come back home with not one but dozens or birds." Henry knew that Charlie was always very eager and ambitious when it came to hunting. Only time will tell what will happen on the trip out into the woods.
