ADVENTURE WITH A CRAYON

This was one of my favorite lessons when teaching & my daughter enjoyed it too. We started out by reading the book Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson. After we read the book, we discussed how she could be just like Harold and go on a drawing adventure. Have your child choose a color of crayon to go on the adventure with. Of course my daughter chose purple too, because it’s one of her favorite colors. Your child will make one big consecutive drawing. We used a white roll paper for the activity.

We found a video online of the book and put it on our TV. At school i would just reread the book. You can do either. Only watch/read a few pages at a time and then stop. There is no right or wrong thing to draw- its up to your child’s imagination. They can draw the same things as Harold or change the story to be their own.

In the book, Harold draws an apple tree and then a dragon to protect it. My daughter chose to draw an apple tree as well, but then chose a different creature to protect her tree- a bunny. The moon follows Harold throughout the book, so she drew the moon in all of her pictures. Another example is Harold made a picnic of pies. My daughter liked the picnic idea, but with pizza instead (see picture below).

Once the drawing is complete, have your child retell their story starting at the first drawing until last.

We started at the beginning of the book/ at the beginning of the roll paper and worked our way across the paper as the story went on. Hope your child enjoys this activity as much as we did. Let the adventure begin!