Mrs. Winchester loved ornate and beautiful wallpapers with fancy designs. In chapters 4 and 7 of The Winchester House: The Missing Necklace, Lily, Carl, and Theodore see examples of the wallpapers. In one chapter they look beautiful and in the other, in the dark of night, they look spooky.
Try to design your own wallpaper for the Winchester House. You can make it beautiful or a bit spooky – it’s up to you!
Materials:
- Colors like crayons, colored pencils, and markers
- White drawing paper or larger sheets of paper (you can cut open a paper bag to create a large work surface)
- Rulers (if you want to use them)
- Pencils and erasers
Procedure:
Review: Go back through chapters 4 and 7 of The Winchester Mysteries: The Missing Necklace and review what descriptions are given about the wallpaper the children see. In chapter 4, the wallpaper was amazingly beautiful, and in chapter 7, the wallpaper looked spooky.
Imagine and Create: Now, close your eyes and pretend you are designing a new wallpaper for the Winchester House. Think about colors, patterns, and whether you want it to be beautiful or a little spooky.
Designing Time: Get your drawing paper and colors ready. Draw your special wallpaper! You can use rulers if you want straight lines, or you can draw freehand. Think about whether or not you want your wallpaper to have a repeating pattern.
Show and Tell: Time to share your awesome designs! Talk about the wallpaper you made. Why did you choose the colors you used? Do you think Mrs. Winchester would have wanted to put the paper you created up in her house?
Extensions: For those of you who love writing, you can describe your wallpaper design in a sentence of a short paragraph.