Paintings tell a story. We look at Grant Wood's American Gothic and imagine a storyline that goes with it. We look at Winslow Homer's painting The Fog Warning and get a feeling that the story that goes with it is one of danger and doom. Someone or something inspires all art. How about a pet or an animal? If you look at your pet does it tell you a story?

The above was a question I posed to my third-graders after showing them various paintings and asking them to tell me what they thought the artist was trying to tell them. We discussed the fact that many times we might interpret a painting differently than an artist intended for his story to be told, but that's okay. Each painting and work of art tells an individual story for the artist and also for the viewer.

I wanted my students' curiosity to be aroused. I wanted them to want to know more about a painting and an artist when they looked at a work of art. For instance, in American Gothic, what are the two people looking at? Are the two people married or are they brother and sister? Do these two people live in the house behind them? Are these people farmers or does the man just happen to have a pitchfork in his hand? How do they know? It's wonderful to ask these probing questions. Meaningful discussions come forth which lead into art history, artists' lives and why people express themselves with art. My students were given a 12" x 18" sheet of white paper on which to draw their pet or someone else's pet. The pet was to tell a story in some way. It was to be the "pet's perspective" on life. I left the category wide open and would not answer too many questions as to what I wanted, thus enhancing their creativity.

When the sketches were finished, the students painted them with tempera. The results were great. We had a hamster jumping on a trampoline and superdog flying through the sky. One large pink cat could still fly, even though the vet had told her to go on a diet. One of the dogs thought her ears were too big until she got compliments on how lovely her coat's color was and how it matched her ears! There was a cat who wanted to let everyone know how easy her life was in a bubble bath all day with her rubber ducky? Not only did this lesson spur the creativity locked inside, it also allowed the students to mix paints, experiment with sponge painting, and get an art-history lesson all rolled into one. The lesson was an overall winner.

• Identify the objects in their paintings and explain how they tell a story.
  
• Show how they used large and small shapes to create their painting.
  
• Judge whether they think their painting was a success.
  
• Analyze at least one famous painting with who, what, where, why.
  
• Utilize tempera paint techniques to create colors and textures on paper.
  
• Increase their ability to use and mix colors that contribute to the expressiveness of the painting.
  
• Display feelings of pleasure in this painting experience.

• 12" x 18" sheets of white paper
  
• Pencils
  
• Tempera paints
  
• Paintbrushes
  
• Containers of water for rinsing brushes