Science and Visual Art Integration *The idea of this lesson is courtesy of my kindergarten teacher, Jen Terry :)* This is the lesson I was most excited for all year. Science was one of my favorite subjects in elementary school and I think it is the perfect subject to integrate with art! A dead trout is required for this lesson's success. Can be caught in a river, or purchased at your local grocery store. Additionally, block printing ink, a brayer or two, 12x18" paper, and some plexi glass is all you need. Print making. Dead fish. Mapping it out. Need I say more? I guess I will so you can see how I did things ;) During the course of the past few months, I've learned that I love beginning my lessons with reading a book or two with the children. On this day, we read the classic, Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister. Mind you, the students were not aware that they were about to be exposed to a dead trout. But when they were, they LOVED it. I let them touch it and see how it felt. Then, I introduced them to print making: roll the brayer in the paint, onto the plexi glass until sticky, then onto the fish. Press the paper down onto the fish and peel. The students quickly got to work! For the sake of efficiency, I purchased two trout so two students could be working on this at a time. In the mean time, other students spent some good ol' fashion time in the encyclopedia - finding fish facts! Eventually, all the students completed their prints and it was time to map. Mapping is very beneficial for students to learn new vocabulary, make connections, and gain an understanding of the subject matter. So, we spent some time learning the different parts of the trout and mapped them! Overall, this lesson went really well! The kids LOVED it and I think it'll be something they never forget! A few things learned...
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Social Studies and Visual Art Integration I struggled for a good while trying to come up with a social studies and art integration lesson. I researched and asked and racked my brain for ideas for a solid two weeks. Nothing. Finally, a few days before I was supposed to go in, my creative juices started to flow. I thought back to elementary school when I was learning about the Native American tribes in Utah. Then, I decided to look up unique art from these tribes. Here's what I found: The Navajo Tribe - SAND PAINTINGS I found a common work of art that the Navajo people created were sand paintings. They literally mean, “Places where the gods come and go," and are often used in ceremonies to tell stories of Navajo legends. The Anasazi Tribe - PETROGLYPHS Made over 8,000 years ago, the Anasazi people carved or painted on stone surfaces stories of legends or hunting scenes. The Ute Tribe - BASKET ART The Utes are known for their basket making for the past 10,000 years. They would weave designs into their baskets. The baskets were often woven so tightly, they could be used to hold water; they were most often used for food sorting and prep. After doing this research, my wheels began to turn. How could I recreate this in a 2nd grade classroom? Then I thought, well, the sand paintings could easily be recreated on brown butcher paper or poster boards; I have a random 2x2' concrete slab at home that I could bring for the rock art / petroglyphs, and if I didn't have that, could use cardboard; if I could find some kind of flat-ish baskets, we could use that for the basket art. I wound up finding some tan, woven place mats from Kohl's that worked! I finally had my plan! I got some acrylic paints and brushes and packed my things for class. To begin class, we read from The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush by Tomie dePaola - the perfect introductory book for this lesson. Then, with some simple posters I created, I explained the various Native American tribes of Utah and their respective art. I sent the students back to their desks (which are set up in three groups of 4-8 students). Each group was assigned to a tribe and would recreate the type of art their tribe made. Group one - sand paintings. Group two - petroglyphs. Group three - basket art. The students loved it! I honestly don't think the lesson could have gone any better. I was very impressed with the designs they came up with!
Math and Visual Art Integration *The idea of this lesson is courtesy of my kindergarten teacher, Jen Terry :)* This was a fun lesson! It took a little longer than expected, so we broke it into two different lessons. Mrs. Stapel was unable to be there for the first lesson, so we had the help from a great substitute teacher! I gave the students a worksheet with 6 different shapes on it: a quarter-circle, square, triangle, rectangle, half-circle, and trapezoid. I also gave each student a dice. They were instructed to roll the dice for each shape and write the number they rolled next to their shape. Then, with pattern shapes, they traced the shapes onto colored construction paper. For example, if a student rolled a 3 for squares, they would trace 3 squares on colored paper. Once the students had all of their shapes traced on a piece of paper, they cut them out and with their various shapes, formed a design on a blank piece of paper. They could create anything they want with their shapes. Their designs were impressive! On the teaching side of things, I found that giving all directions at the beginning and giving examples was most effective. Students caught on quickly and asked questions when appropriate, which was great! The only hiccup we had was when we found out there were no circle pattern shapes that we could use to trace. Circular stencils would have worked great, but we didn't have those. We were quick on our feet, and used glue sticks and play-dough cans to trace for the circles! Improvising is always a good skill to develop :)
Language Arts & Visual Art Integration I was so excited preparing for this lesson. This was the first integration lesson that I taught. My objective was combining ELA Standard 4 and Standard 2.V.R.2: Students will “determine the meaning of words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 2 topic or subject area” (ELA Reading Literature Standard 4) and “identify the mood suggested by a work of art and describe relevant subject matter and characteristics of form” (Standard 2.V.R.2). I felt these two standards go very well together and could be met by reading from a beautifully written and illustrated book, Fishing in the Air by Sharon Creech. I read this book with the students and pointed out the elements of art in the detailed illustrations. After we finished reading, I sent the students back to their desks. I told them I was going to slowly read back to them one very descriptive part of the story two or three times. They needed to close their eyes and pay attention to what that looked like to them. Next, I had them pull out their crayons (this could be done with any colorful medium) and a piece of paper. I walked around the classroom and read to them the same descriptive passage again, over and over. The students drew whatever came to mind, connecting the meaning of the text to paper. This requires creative thinking to put onto paper what is in their head; a very valuable skill! I caught a bubble of breeze and a sliver of sky and a slice of yellow sun and a small gray house with a crooked porch and tiny windows and a red roof and rolling green fields with red flowers waving and tall green trees and a river rippling cool and clear I absolutely loved what the students came up with! None of their drawings were the exact same; each had their own unique rendition of what this passage looked like to them. At the end, we did another silent gallery walk-through where the students went around and looked at everyone's drawings. Several students shared what they liked about their classmates' drawings and had the opportunity to share a little bit about their own art.
After setting expectations for the semester, and communicating with Mrs. Stapels on what she wanted from this experience, we decided it would be worthwhile to teach the students some basic drawing skills. This would be a foundational lesson that would help students develop and apply these skills to their future projects. To get their creative juices flowing, I gave them three prompts to choose from. These were the prompts:
After the warm-up, I wanted to teach them different ways they could fill the space of whatever it is they are drawing. We folded a paper into quarters and filled 3 of the 4 quarters with a different drawing technique: circling, hatching, cross-hatching. For the fourth quarter, I showed them how to draw a tree -- the way a tree grows. I was so impressed with their abilities to pick up these skills!
To wrap up the lesson, we went back to our warm-up drawings. I invited them each to choose one or two skills they learned from the lesson and apply it to their drawing. I felt like this was a great way to wind things down and bring everything full circle. This was different than what I had originally planned. I was going to have them draw something completely new. If we had more time, it would have been a good activity, but either way, I'm glad I had them go back to their original drawing. I'm grateful I learned the lesson to go with the flow, be flexible, and open to new ideas and different things to do in the moment!
After going in and observing Mrs. Stapels' 2nd Grade classroom, I was so excited to get to know these cute kids, help them improve their art skills, and learn from an experienced master teacher! For the first lesson, I decided I wanted to get to know the students better. And, since it's still early in the school year, I wanted to give them an opportunity to get to know each other a little better, too. Before getting into the activity, I wanted the students to understand the difference between abstract and realism in the art world, specifically for portraits. I shared several examples of what both looked like. The students were very bright and made great observations on the different aspects of abstract and realistic art. Next, I introduced to them our activity: Speed Portraits. Essentially, students were going to face each other in pairs and would spend 2 minutes at a time drawing the classmate across from them. They had the freedom to choose to draw their partner either realistically or abstractly. Then, in "speed dating" style, they would rotate and spend another 2 minutes drawing someone else. They used a different medium with each person they drew (pencil, crayon, pencil) in order to explore which they liked best. Now, in theory and on paper this worked very well and transitioned flawlessly! I learned quickly that reality was a little different. Transitions were not smooth and there was a flaw in the rotation system. Trying to rotate between poeple and mediums just did not work! Thanks to an experienced classroom manager, Mrs. Stapels thought quickly as to how we could adjust and make it work. It took some doing, and I learned a lot from this experience, but it worked out in the end and I think the students enjoyed themselves! Rather than trying to rotate and snake through the desks, in the future, I would probably arrange students in two circles facing each other. Each set of chairs would be assigned a medium and students would rotate either clockwise or counter-clockwise. I look forward to trying that out, and I imagine it would work out a little more smoothly than what I originally thought. After we completed the activity, students placed their work on their desks and did a silent art gallery walk-through to observe each other's work! We took some time to reflect and share what they liked from other's work, which medium they liked best and why, and whether they liked to draw realistically or abstractly and why. Overall, it was a great first lesson. The students enjoyed it, had the opportunity to discover their own style of art, and get to know each other a little better. I learned some solid classroom management skills and Mrs. Stapels will hopefully get to use a rendition of this activity in the future.
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