Traveling in Style

Plan an imaginary trip anywhere in the world then draw and paint your group in the clothes of the culture.

• 1.

  In a small group, choose another country to visit. Develop a travel budget for an imaginary tour. What will you take with you? What will you pay for while you are there? How much will the trip cost in total, and for each person? If you had a year to save for the trip, how much would you need to save each week? Find out what the climate is like at the time of year you will arrive, and the kind of clothing that is traditional for the area in that season.

• 2.

  Using Crayola® Crayons on a large sheet of watercolor paper, make heavy outlines of your imaginary tour group wearing traditional clothing for the culture visited. Design fabrics, colors, and designs common to the culture.

• 3.

  Outline a background scene of one place on your visit.

• 4.

  For dense color, paint Crayola Washable Tempera on dry paper with a Crayola Paint Brush.

• 5.

  For lighter colors, wet portions of your drawing and thin paint with water. Let colors bleed and blend into each other for a softer effect. Dry.

Benefits

• Students choose a travel destination in another culture, create a list of items needed, obtain prices, and research the climate and traditional clothing in the culture.
• Students develop imaginary travel budgets--with which they calculate and solve problems involving addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division--for travel costs as well as daily expenses and activities.
• Children create visuals of their tour parties wearing clothing traditional to the visited culture using crayon resist and wash techniques.

Adaptations

• Older children work with younger learners to plan an imaginary trip together. Collages with authentic fabric could be used to make the group portrait.
• Display tour budgets and student artwork in a Traveling in Style exhibit. Visitors write comments on small sticky notes and post them around the children's work.
• Challenge small groups of older children to develop proposals and budgets for a local class trip. They collect pamphlets and brochures, and develop a budget, including how much the trip would cost per person with transportation and lunch. Groups submit proposals. The class analyzes them to determine which is most cost effective as well as appealing.