6-9 Jeff Once a week, the art teacher came to Jeff's class. This was Jeff's least favorite time, and thinking about it always made his stomach hurt. The problem was that Jeff felt like a terrible artist. He always mixed all the colors together. His lines were wiggly instead of straight. He wanted to be a better painter so badly.

Jeff did everything he could make his paintings neat. He drew his pictures in pencil first, so he could stay inside the lines. He used a fresh paintbrush for every color. The colors still mixed, and Jeff got angry. He tore up his painting and started over. He only used two colors to paint more cleanly. But try as he might, his painting still looked messy.

The next week, the art teacher brought Jeff a book. The book was about a very famous artist. The paintings in the book were outstanding, even though they looked pretty messy at first. This artist mixed up colors left and right. There were no straight lines, only wiggly ones. They were even messier than Jeff's paintings. Somehow, this just made them more beautiful.

Jeff put aside the book and picked up his paintbrush. He started a new painting of a field with flowers. He mixed up his colors more than usual, putting black in the flowers and green in the sky. He made the lines on his painting extra wiggly. When he was finished, his art teacher smiled. Jeff's new painting was very messy and very beautiful.

QUESTIONS:

1. What was Jeff's least favorite subject in school (TK)

2. Why is Jeff feel like a terrible artist? (TK)

3. Jeff thinks paintings have to be neat or be clear representation of what he is painting. Why do you think Jeff believes his art should be this way? (EK)

4. What did Jeff do to try and make his painting better? (TK)

5. He was not successful making neater paintings and got upset. Why do you think Jeff got so angry when his paintings still looked messy? (EK)

6. Even though he tried, Jeff's paintings were still messy. Why? (EK)

7. Why did Jeff's art teacher bring him a book? (EK)

8. What was in the book Jeff's teacher bought? (TK)

9. What made Jeff's final painting better than the ones he did before? (EK)

10. How did his teacher respond to Jeff's final painting? (TK)