"The Homework Machine" Visualizing Activity

Grades: Any
Summary: Read The Homework Machine poem and have students draw what it would look like.

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This lesson incorporates Language Arts into Art. I use this with primary students, but it could be used for any grade.

Materials:
Paper
Pencils and erasers
Pencil crayons (or crayons, felt pens, paint, etc.)

Give each student their supplies. Have each student close their eyes. Tell them to close their eyes and get ready to use their imaginations. Tell them they are going to make a picture in their minds and they'll be drawing it later.

Read the class the poem "The Homework Machine" by Shel Silverstein. When you are finished, tell the class to draw and color a picture of what they think the homework machine would look like.

Then the students are done drawing, have a discussion about the poem and their pictures. For primary grades (especially K or 1), questions like "How big do you think the machine is?" and "What kind of noises do you think the machine would make?" are suitable. Older grades can answer questions like "Why do you think the machine didn't work properly?" and "How would you build a homework machine?"
Submitted by: Patricia Pruim - Iskut, BC, Canada

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