From Words to Image By Mary Erickson, Ph.D., with Susanna Yazzie, Art Teacher and Alena Almendarez, Fifth Grade Teacher

In 1940, Columbia Pictures made a movie adapted from the novel, Arizona, by Clarence Budington Kelland. Read this paragraph from the novel: “The [Tucson street] was choked with Conestoga wagons bringing flour from Sonora, with hay wagons fighting their way to the government corrals to feed great droves of horses and mules. The town was a roaring, jostling, carousing mob of soldiers, teamsters, gamblers, ragamuffins who boozed and sang and fought and spent.” How do you imagine Hollywood might adapt these words into a scene in a movie?

Did you imagine something like this? Image from copper publicity postcard from Columbia Pictures. On loan, courtesy of the Arizona Historical Society, Tucson.

Your challenge is to adapt a scene from a short story into a computer image that: shows an important character from the story, gives the character a background from the story and includes relevant words from the story.

Fifth grade students made images using the Pixie 4 computer application. Their images are adaptations from the short story Spitting Up Frogs by Miki Dare.

Depending on the computer application you are using, you can create your character yourself, select a character provided by the computer application, or combine pre-made images while adding your own modifications.

Which frog was made by modifying the lines and shapes provided by the computer application? Which frog was created by a student drawing lines and shapes with a computer mouse?

Four students imagined the girl in the story differently.

When artists create a scene, they often place the main character in the foreground. The foreground is the part of the image that is closest to the viewer. wood inlay from Madagascar In this image, the two women and some plants are in the foreground.

The background is further away from the viewer. wood inlay from Madagascar What do you see in the background of this image?

The student who created this image placed her characters in the foreground and chose an outdoor background with sky, grass, a house and a tree.

Another student created the character in the foreground of his image. He chose a photographic background and added a lake, plants and other details.

One way to make things seem further away is to make them smaller. The four toy cats above are all about the same size. In the photo of the same toy cats on the right, the cats that are closer to the viewer (in the foreground) look larger than those that are further away (in the background).

Both of the students who created these images combined some images provided by the computer application and some images they drew themselves. What things in the background did each student make small so they look further away?

Re-read the short story and select words that help tell the story illustrated in your computer image. Consider carefully where to insert the words and what size font will best complement your image.

Thank you! 5 th grade students at Kyrene de las Brisas Elementary School Chandler, AZ