Bad Day At Riverbend

This morning, I read Bad Day at Riverbend by Chris Van Allsburg. It's a story where the people in a town in the old West, where everything is black and white, are preplexed and horrified when all of a sudden, "...thick stripes" of coloured "...greasy slime" starts showing up on people, animals, buildings, and the landscape. It turns out that the people are characters in a colouring book, and that a stripes of greasy slime are the result of a child colouring on the pages. Van Allsburg got the idea one day when he was cleaning up his daughter's room. She had been colouring, and a character with a terrified look on her face had been coloured green and purple. Van Allsburg thought that it looked like the character was terrified that she had been coloured, and began to think about how characters who live in colouring books might feel when their page is opened up and coloured on (the man is a brilliant writer!). After we read the story, I told the students that I wanted them to draw a western-themed picture (with the title Bad Day at Radissonbend), write a description of their scene on the back, and then scribble on their drawing with crayons... which perplexed them at first, but then they dove right in! The pictures are not all done yet, but when they are, I'll upload them to our Artsonia page, and put the link on the blog. Here are some of the comments I got in response to our activity - I couldn't stop smiling while they were doing this activity!

I haven't scribbled like this since I was four years old! - Robyn
But you never want us to scribble outside the lines! - Logan
It's like we're in Kindergarten! - Jenna
It feels like I'm five again! - Tyler
It's back to Kindergarten scribbling again! - Joey
Scribbling day is awesome! - Gal
I haven't scribbled like this since I was 2! - Ava
I haven't coloured like this since I was 1! I coloured all over the couch and wall, and got in trouble. - Dasia
I scribbled so much on this paper! - Lexi
Scribbling is AWESOME!!! - Braylin
I haven't doodled like this since I was born. - Jett
I was 2 the last time I scribbled like this. - Marie
I haven't scribbled since I was 2. - Kaynen
It feels bad to scribble in grade 3! - Sydney
Today we were scribbling like it was the wild, wild west, like in the book. It was pretty fun I made the sheriff say "What in tarnation is that?!" - Dylan
It is so awesome to scribble. - Jacell
I've never scribbled like this since I was three. - Hailey M.
I stopped scribbling when I was 7 or 6! - Cameron W.
I haven't scribbled like this since I was 2! - Mikayla

We were also lucky enough to have some members of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra (WSO) visit Radisson to perform for us, and to talk about some of the music they were playing, along with their instruments. It was a pretty good day!