Tar Beach

Tar Beach is a wonderful book written and illustrated by story quilt artist Faith Ringgold. In the story, Cassie Louise Lighfoot, a poor girl growing up in the city, dreams she can fly and that she owns everything she flies over. I read this book with my third grade classes, and then we created cityscapes of our own. First, the students created a skyline that they cut out of paper to use as a stencil. We used the stencils as a mask while using chalk to create glowing lights. The second class time, we used crayola color sticks (one of my favorite art supplies!) to create windows, streets, bridges, moons, etc. in our cities. The last step of our project was to write a short story about where the students would fly to if they could close their eyes and fly anywhere in the world. I love writing about art because it helps me learn so much about my students and what is really important to them!

     

Here is our writing form: