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G3-4 Text Set: Artists in the Making

The Story Pirates are a group of actors and comedians. They perform musical comedies based on kids’ ideas. COURTESY STORY PIRATES

Creativity is all around us. It’s in the music we hear and in the fashion we choose to wear. It’s in the paintings we look at and in the plays we watch. This text set explores the theme of innovation by featuring various artists’ creative processes and their impact on the world.

Essential Questions:

1. What defines an artist?

2. What inspires people to create? Where do they get their ideas from?

3. What effects do artists have on their communities?

4. What lessons can readers take away from reading about creative people?

5. How do different artists and their creative processes compare and contrast?

Click here for the full PDF guide to this text set. 

Paired Text

Arts

8 Questions for Elisabeth Anisimow

March 7, 2019

Twelve-year-old Elisabeth Anisimow’s work has been seen around the world. The California-based artist spoke with TFK’s Kio Herrera about her process and her Living Art series, in which she paints live models in historic settings. 1. How did you first…

Arts

Hidden Treasures

January 18, 2019

Phoebe Wolinetz, 9, dreamed up an idea for a mystery. The details were vivid. The setting: a rare-plant shop in New York City. The culprit : a man with yellow eyes. Story Pirates gave Phoebe’s idea to an author. She…

Arts

Art In Action

November 30, 2018

It was an ordinary day at Grand Central Terminal, in New York City. People were rushing through the busy train station. Then the creatures showed up. They were green, red, and shades of blue. When they moved, they whooshed like…

Video

Arts

8 Questions for Amanda Gorman

April 27, 2018

Amanda Gorman is the first-ever National Youth Poet Laureate. She says poetry can give voice to a new generation of leaders. Has poetry always been a part of your life? I began writing songs when I was 5. In middle…

Arts

Music Maker

May 5, 2017

In many ways, Alma Deutscher is like other 11-year-olds. She climbs trees, dances, reads, draws, and skips rope. But Alma, who lives in Dorking, England, can claim some very special accomplishments. She composed a full opera and brought it to…

Arts

Star Ballerina

February 5, 2016

A basketball court is an odd place to dance ballet—or for a star ballerina to be discovered. But it was on a court at a Boys and Girls Club in San Pedro, California, that Misty Copeland took her first ballet…

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