Unicorns have always been trendy, but these last few years they seem to have populated the minds of children everywhere. Unicorns crop up on t-shirts, hoodies have horns and ears, and during free drawing time, guess who comes prancing on the page in sparkling splendor? After receiving numerous student poetry submissions featuring unicorns – unicorns that eat rainbows, unicorns that fart rainbows, unicorns that walk on rainbows – I have decided to embrace them.
These rainbow unicorns will probably always leave me feeling like I ate one too many sprinkle cupcakes. But I’ve been thinking, perhaps there are other types of unicorns waiting to be found.
Humanity’s interest in unicorns has spanned centuries. Unicorn references can be found in numerous ancient cultures, from Mesopotamia to China to India to Persia to France. The Unicorn Tapestries of the Middle Ages are particularly iconic and forever influenced ideas of what unicorns look like: white, with a goat-like beard, and a spiraling horn. They symbolize purity, grace, and rarity. Humanity’s hunt for unicorns is everlasting.
Perhaps I shouldn’t be so bothered by all the unicorn poems. After all, unicorns were a strong presence in my own elementary years and truthfully, I loved them. My generation saw the proliferation of Lisa Frank animals, foremost among them an exuberant technicolor unicorn. There was the movie, The Last Unicorn, and also My Little Ponies, who live on today in ever evolving cartoon, plastic, and plush renditions.
It does, however, present a dilemma when so many kids write so many unicorn poems to the exclusion of other topics. Many topics become distractions in this way. Poop, for example, can fast become a classroom writing fad. With so many media images of scintillating unicorns, do children have space to imagine their own magical creatures? It’s not unlike being in a meeting where one voice dominates the floor. However enthralling that one voice may be, other voices are waiting, and with a little more space, new and captivating ideas might emerge. What other creatures are begging to be uncaged? Indeed, just last year, for the first time, I heard of the pandacorn.
It became apparent that if I didn’t acknowledge them in writing lessons, cliché unicorns would continue to occupy our time. So I printed images of the Unicorn Tapestries, and without giving historical details or context, asked students questions. Several of these images feature a hunt. Art historians know the stories and intricate symbolism behind these tapestries, but children invent their own intriguing versions if left to dream. Why are humans hunting the unicorn? What magic powers does the unicorn have? What does the unicorn think to itself as it sits captured in the flowery pen? Will the unicorn escape? The tapestries, with their muted natural-dye colors and narrative quality, nudge responses beyond glitter-sparkle descriptions and introduce intriguing new dynamics. This is a world where unicorns might not eat cupcakes and giggle. The stakes for the unicorn have been significantly raised. What does the unicorn possess that humans covet so?
Teaching this lesson on unicorns allowed a channel for the obsession, one that brought into being more detailed unicorn descriptions. It also opened the door for other fantastical creatures. The lesson can be built on using other art images of mythical creatures throughout history, like the phoenix or griffin. Children respond with enthusiasm when asked to then imagine their very own creature, perhaps by combining the parts of known animals. Swapping the word “creature” for “monster” or “beast” can also open up new imagery for students.
And so my friends, long live the unicorn!
Here are some poems my students wrote in response to the lesson plan:
Unicorn Adventure
By Sianna and Jaellianna
Unicorns eat candy
Not people food
Is and has colorful hair
Checks on her baby unicorns
Oh I know they have magical powers
Red is the unicorn’s favorite color
Now they are extinct so nobody could see them
The Colorful Life of the Unicorn
By Sofia and Zulay
Underneath the sparkly clouds
Neat in her rainbow house
In her lollipop smoothie
Complete rainbow bows
Obviously rainbow nail polish
Running to sparkly ice cream shop
Now sleeping and do it all over again tomorrow
Petting a Unicorn
By Jaellianna
When I was doing gymnastics
I saw a unicorn in the valley
through the window.
Me petting a unicorn
like a cloud in the sky.
Are unicorns real?
The Hunters Enter the Woods and The Mystic Capture of the Unicorn
inspired by the Unicorn Tapestries
a collaborative poem by 1st graders at Sam Hughes Elementary
They were holding spears
A bow, and a seed
In the woods, dark
A fairy looking
They search for the white horn
Looking for footprints and a rainbow
Unicorns smell like cotton candy and cookies
The hunters get a leash, put the unicorn in a bag.
And they take it home.
It kicks, neighing like a horse, soft.
The hunters want the magic from the horn
To heal their family members
To get more rainbows in their city
They like the unicorn as a pet
To use it as a slave
They use it to fly
They feed it carrots and rainbows.
Unicorn in Captivity
inspired by the Unicorn Tapestries
a collaborative poem by 1st graders at Sam Hughes Elementary
It has nowhere to go,
It doesn’t even have toys.
The unicorn stands 10 feet tall.
The mane is like wool.
The hooves are like satin.
The eyes are like silk.
The fur is like cotton.
Saraiya Kanning is a creative writer and visual artist with an interest in wildlife and ecology. As an educator, she seeks to inspire students with joy and curiosity for art making. She often highlights the intersection of art and science in her workshops and enjoys facilitating writing exercises that celebrate Sonoran Desert ecology. Kanning holds an MFA in fiction writing from the University of Arizona. She teaches drawing and painting at The Drawing Studio and in her home studio. You can view her visual art at raebirdcreations.com.