A Toy's Story
Students depict where their toys go in their imagination.
Over the course of 5–6 lessons, students learn to draw by closely observing a real-life object—their favorite toy. They begin by practicing observational drawing, focusing on shape, detail, and proportion. From there, they expand their artwork by imagining what their toy does in a fantastical world, using the background of their drawing to tell part of the story.
Once their visual piece is complete, students write a choose-your-own-adventure style story that features their toy as the main character. The drawing becomes the cover of their storybook, combining their skills in visual art and creative writing. This project encourages both technical growth and imaginative thinking, helping students develop narrative and artistic expression side by side.
Good for:
All Ages
Student Examples
The title of my book is, “Crystals and Sparkle.” My toy’s name is Sparkle. There’s three places it takes place: the first spot is home, the second spot is the ice palace, and the third part is in the wild. In the story, Sparkles takes a trip to the Ice Palace, but forgets her family’s crystal ball, so to them it’s very important. Her family is full of witches and wizards. She goes back for it, and then they eat wild blueberries. My favorite part about making the book was mostly coloring and the effort. The effort it took to make it. Sharpie-ing everything was the hardest part.
Natalie, 7.
My book is titled The City of Windows. My toy’s name is Muddles, and I am also in the book. We go to The City of Windows, and explore the houses. Then, we discover a secret treasure. Jewels and crowns, and then we take some crowns and take them to the goddess. She says that we are welcome to come in (me and my stuffie). My favorite part about making the book was when I got to draw the front cover, I got to draw my stuffie and another stuffie. The most challenging part was erasing pencil (after drawing). When I colored all the cover, that’s when I was most proud. I don’t think I would have done anything differently. People should ask before they look at it.
Emily, 6
“Lioness in the Future”
My stuffed animal Lioness is going up the levitating passageway to get to the entrance of her futuresque abode. She lives in a house made out of flexiglass and most of the colors I used were blue and if I didn’t use blue I mixed blue with other colors. Most of it is green and greenish blue and bluish purple, plus a little tan for Lioness.