Robert Frost-inspired Landscape

Do Now: Describe your perfect snow day. What would you do first? Next? Last?

For the last day of our "Genres of Art" unit, the 3rd and 4th grade focused on landscapes. Because it was too cold to go outside and draw a real landscape (it's been snowing for days!), we decided to draw from our imagination. 

We read the poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost. 

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.   

His house is in the village though;   

He will not see me stopping here   

To watch his woods fill up with snow.   

My little horse must think it queer   

To stop without a farmhouse near   

Between the woods and frozen lake   

The darkest evening of the year.   

He gives his harness bells a shake   

To ask if there is some mistake.   

The only other sound’s the sweep   

Of easy wind and downy flake.   

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,   

But I have promises to keep,   

And miles to go before I sleep,   

And miles to go before I sleep.

First, we read the poem and listened to the way the words sound. Then we read it again, making sure we knew what was happening in each verse. Last, we read through stanza by stanza and used the clues Robert Frost gives to try to visualize the landscape. The speaker is in the woods, at dusk, during a snowstorm. He is near trees and a frozen lake, and the only other living thing nearby is his horse. 

After brainstorming, we sketched and painted what we say in our imagination!