* Please note that the the lesson plans and unit plans listed here are of various forms and templates.
Shape to Form with Wire (5th Grade)
Description:
Students will learn the element of art, form. They will relate what they know about shape to form, and develop the understanding that form is three-dimensional while shape is on a flat surface. Students will also think through two forms that can have the same shape when seen from one perspective Student will explore how to create form out of wire by learning specific techniques to make a line into a form. They will be exposed to a new material and practice forming and creating form.
Overarching Understandings:
Students will learn the element of art, form. They will relate what they know about shape to form, and develop the understanding that form is three-dimensional while shape is on a flat surface. Students will also think through two forms that can have the same shape when seen from one perspective Student will explore how to create form out of wire by learning specific techniques to make a line into a form. They will be exposed to a new material and practice forming and creating form.
Overarching Understandings:
- Forms make up the space that we live in.
- When form is translated onto a flat surface, it only shows one perspective.
Science Integration with Wildflowers (6th-8th Grade)
Description:
Students will learn simultaneously about the ecosystems in Illinois while learning the art concepts of foreground, middle ground and background, as well as contour lines. Students will make an accordion book that depicts the details as well as the surrounding environment for Illinois wildflowers.
Overarching Understandings:
Students will learn simultaneously about the ecosystems in Illinois while learning the art concepts of foreground, middle ground and background, as well as contour lines. Students will make an accordion book that depicts the details as well as the surrounding environment for Illinois wildflowers.
Overarching Understandings:
- Many plants and animals create ecosystems.
- Flowers help pollinators survive.
- Organisms in ecosystems are dependent on one another
- Contour lines show just the outside of an object.
- Objects in the foreground are bigger and in greater detail and then size and detail diminish as we move to the middle ground and background.
Self Portraits with Pattern (K- 5th Grade)
Description:
Students will be starting their annual self-portrait project. They do this for a program called "Square One Art,” which requires that artwork be submitted so that parents can order merchandise with their child's artwork, like iphone cases, magnets, luggage tags, coffee mugs, etc. Each year, they work on a self-portrait project, so that parents can see how the portraits change over the years. Students last week learned 6 elements of art, and will be choosing focusing online, color, shape and pattern on in their project, using a rubric as their guide.
Overarching Understandings:
Students will be starting their annual self-portrait project. They do this for a program called "Square One Art,” which requires that artwork be submitted so that parents can order merchandise with their child's artwork, like iphone cases, magnets, luggage tags, coffee mugs, etc. Each year, they work on a self-portrait project, so that parents can see how the portraits change over the years. Students last week learned 6 elements of art, and will be choosing focusing online, color, shape and pattern on in their project, using a rubric as their guide.
Overarching Understandings:
- The use of the elements of art can make a work appealing.
- The way that the elements are applied to a work of art can affect the mood or the experience when viewing it.
- Various uses of space can convey important ideas in way that is different than two-dimensional artwork.
- There are different ways to depict an idea about you in artwork.
Puerto Rican Vejigante Masks (K-5th Grade)
Description: Students each had a plaster mask created of their face and will start will plan out their artwork. discuss the importance of brainstorming their work before they begin. As we work with a story of Carnival in Puerto Rico, students will be challenged to incorporate a use of pattern and complementary colors as they design their own masks to reflect their own personality and sense of self.
Overarching Understandings:
Overarching Understandings:
- Planning out artwork before beginning a final draft is important to work through ideas and visually see how the elements and principles work together best.
- Complementary colors and patterns can enhance a work of art.
- Puerto Rican culture makes use of masks to celebrate during Carnival.
- Masks have been used for many reasons and in many ways throughout different cultures and throughout time.
- Like a self-portrait, masks can be used as a way of expressing one's self, but allow for that expression in three dimensions.
- Many art media and materials are used differently and often in combination to create a successful piece of work.
Shapes, Space, and Frank Lloyd Wright (4th Grade)
Description:
Students are challenged to use shape to create pattern in a Frank Lloyd Wright style. They work with the concept of space to create repetition with their shapes. From a grid, students will learn classification of many shapes based on parallel and perpendicular lines and will also find area and perimeter.
Overarching Understandings:
Students are challenged to use shape to create pattern in a Frank Lloyd Wright style. They work with the concept of space to create repetition with their shapes. From a grid, students will learn classification of many shapes based on parallel and perpendicular lines and will also find area and perimeter.
Overarching Understandings:
- Frank Lloyd Wright used geometric shape and pattern in stained glass to create interesting and intricate compositions.
- Repeating a shape creates pattern.
- Area is the space that takes up the inside of a two dimensional shape.
Clay
I wrote a $10,000 grant last fall to bring in clay to our classroom. We otherwise wouldn't be able to work with clay because of our budget and lack of a kiln. Through the Creative Schools grant, we brought in folks from ArtREACH to teach students the properties of clay, elements and principals of art, and some of the rich history of the Bronzeville neighborhood, including the musical side. Students started by just playing with the play and feeling its properties. We then used tools to create and overlap textures before making them into shapes. Students then learned how to scratch and attach to build things like trains and benches from their neighborhood. They also learned how to sgraffito on the clay. Lastly, they learned about glaze. This a collaborative project so they took ownership in the entire mural. Some of the pieces they may not have made, but glazed, or visa versa. This is a permanent installation at the school that everyone can enjoy. Special thanks to Marissa Neuman and Damon Locks for coming in to teach!
Mosaics
I wrote a Donors Choose grant this year after we got a large donation of tiles from Greenheart. The grant I wrote was for all of the tools that went along with it (tile cutters, adhesive, gloves, grout, table clothes, containers, etc.) Students first made small mosaics out of paint chips as they learned about the materials we would be using and the techniques in creating mosaics. They also studied artists like Antoni Gaudi and Isaiah Zagar of the Philadelphia Magic Gardens. Students then put four pieces together to create a larger mosaic piece with an image of their choosing.
Ink Monsters
Students explored the medium of ink in class. They practiced bridging the gap between abstract and imaginative reality. Students used a straw to blow the ink around their paper and also used water to create value differences. When they were dry, they added details to bring the abstract ink blobs to life. These were 3rd- 5th grade students.