Elementary School Lesson Plans
Teacher: Sarah Culver
Lesson Title: Food: A Lesson on Sculpture
Length of Class: 1 Day
Length of Lesson: 45 minutes
Grade: 2nd Grade
Prior Learning: Previous work making pinch pots and using clay, geometric and organic shapes, lines of the design
Next Lesson: Painting the dried clay sculptures
Enduring Understanding: People create and interact with objects, places, and designs that define, shape, enhance, and empower their lives.
Essential Questions: How do artists grow and become accomplished in art forms? How do artists and designers learn from trial and error?
Central Focus: Second-grade students are typically at the Concrete Operational Stage, which means they can solve problems. However, they are at the beginning of abstract thinking so their thinking is very concrete. They cannot invent or imagine solutions without the materials at hand. Clay is an ideal material for this stage to use as it requires problem-solving that can be done with the material itself. Students use symbols to represent things, for example, a circle for mom and dad with different details. Children around this age are still eager to please adults and to learn. They tend to understand rules. This small clay sculpture will help them by introducing it as a serious art form, for artistic skills in the future. It is a long-term project, versus one day lesson.
Learning Objectives:
Standards:
VA: Cr2.1.2
Experiment with various materials and tools to explore personal interests in a work of art or design.
Vocabulary Terms:
Material:
Resources: Students will brainstorm a personal list of foods that they enjoy eating. They may write a list or doodle the clay before. The teacher will then print out pictures for the day that the student can use as a template. There will be pictures of various foods, such as pizza, lo mein, and burritos to help students understand the textures they may want to create their sketches and sculptures. There will also be food magazines available.
Day 1
Motivation:
Engagement: Students will be given a handful of clay with which to start making their food clay sculptures. They will be allowed more clay if needed, as some students may need more than others. The students have their sculpture tools on their table, which are shared between two to three students.
Recap and/or Transition: The lesson is teaching about clay, with concepts from the lines of the design. The students are making their favorite food from clay. Today, they are creating clay sculptures.
Closure: Students will share any issues they may have had and how they solved them with the class. If they had a hard time, the class can help them figure it out for next time. Students will tell the teacher what step of the project they are on, and what they will be doing next class.
Reflection: I felt that this part of the lesson went well. The students could reference the lines of design on the wall, so the focus was really on working with clay.
Day 2
Motivation:
Engagement: The students paint at their tables. Once they signal that they are finished by raising their hands, the teacher will review the paint with the students. Students’ artwork is expected to be covered completely to the best of their abilities.
Recap and/or Transition: The lesson is teaching about clay, with concepts from the lines of the design. The students are making their favorite food from clay. Today, they are painting clay sculptures.
Assessment:
ARTWORKS
Did students construct small clay sculptures to be in the shape of their favorite foods?
WRITTEN
Will the students articulate how they made their sculpture using 3-4 vocabulary terms?
DEMONSTRATION
Students will be able to break down the lines of the design to make their food clay sculpture?
Closure: Students will be given a checklist of the different lines of design, and they are expected to check the ones they used. This is also an exit slip about how they felt about the project, telling the teacher about how they felt they did with it and the lesson.
Relevant theories and/or research in best practices in education, art, or art education:
Hafeli, Mary (2015). Exploring Studio Materials: Teaching Creative Art Making to Children. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Mary Hafeli has an excellent chapter on Sculpture that inspired one of the lessons.
Peterson, Rosemary, and Felton-Collins, Victoria (1986) The Piaget Handbook for Teachers and Parents: Children in the Age of Discovery, Preschool-Third Grade. New York, New York: Teachers College Press.
Piaget was a well-known psychologist, and his theory of childhood development is well-used and proven true.
https://www.additude.com/20-adhd-accommodations-that-work/
They list common ADHD accommodations.
https://www.smore.com/441s-the-5-types-of-lines
The list of lines of the design.
http://www.getty.edu/education/teachers/building_lessons/formal_analysis.html
They list the lines of design in more detail.
https://www.teachspeced.ca/fine-motor-skills
They list common accommodations for students with fine motor skills problems.
https://www.thoughtco.com/lesson-plan-step-5-closure-2081851
They list different closures that teachers can use in lesson plans.
Lesson Title: Food: A Lesson on Sculpture
Length of Class: 1 Day
Length of Lesson: 45 minutes
Grade: 2nd Grade
Prior Learning: Previous work making pinch pots and using clay, geometric and organic shapes, lines of the design
Next Lesson: Painting the dried clay sculptures
Enduring Understanding: People create and interact with objects, places, and designs that define, shape, enhance, and empower their lives.
Essential Questions: How do artists grow and become accomplished in art forms? How do artists and designers learn from trial and error?
Central Focus: Second-grade students are typically at the Concrete Operational Stage, which means they can solve problems. However, they are at the beginning of abstract thinking so their thinking is very concrete. They cannot invent or imagine solutions without the materials at hand. Clay is an ideal material for this stage to use as it requires problem-solving that can be done with the material itself. Students use symbols to represent things, for example, a circle for mom and dad with different details. Children around this age are still eager to please adults and to learn. They tend to understand rules. This small clay sculpture will help them by introducing it as a serious art form, for artistic skills in the future. It is a long-term project, versus one day lesson.
Learning Objectives:
- Students will articulate how they made their sculpture using 3-4 vocabulary terms
- Students will construct small clay sculptures to be in the shape of their favorite foods.
- Students will be able to break down the lines of the design to make their food clay sculpture.
Standards:
VA: Cr2.1.2
Experiment with various materials and tools to explore personal interests in a work of art or design.
Vocabulary Terms:
- Coil: a rolled piece of clay put in a flat circle shape
- Slip: the act of wetting a piece of clay to fix a part of clay artwork.
- Ball: a rounded piece of clay in a ball shape.
- Straight: a line that is up and down.
- Horizontal: a line that is like a person laying down
- Vertical: a line that is like a person standing up
- Zig-zag: a line that is going both ways
- Curvy: a line that is almost a circle, rounded.
Material:
- Cups of Water
- Air-dry clay
- Plastic knives
- Plastic forks
- Other miscellaneous sculpture tools, such as cheese graters for texture.
Resources: Students will brainstorm a personal list of foods that they enjoy eating. They may write a list or doodle the clay before. The teacher will then print out pictures for the day that the student can use as a template. There will be pictures of various foods, such as pizza, lo mein, and burritos to help students understand the textures they may want to create their sketches and sculptures. There will also be food magazines available.
Day 1
Motivation:
- The students gather around the teacher at the large table
- The teacher will be demonstrating how to shape clay. The students have learned lines of design, so we will be basing it off of that.
- Teacher: “How do you think I can make a straight line in clay?”
- Student: By rolling into a long line
- Teacher: How can I do that? Can you show me?
- The student is handed the clay and demonstrates
- Teacher: “Can someone tell me a line of design?”
- Student: “Zigzag”
- Teacher: “Can you point to the line and/or describe that line?”
- Student: “It’s the line that’s wavy and straight”
- Teacher: “Right, it’s wavy with corners. How do you think we can make it in clay?”
- The student attempts to make zig-zag in clay. Teacher fixes to be more clearly zig zag.
- Teacher: “It takes practice, time, and patience. People may have a hard time at first but you’ll all do well. I’m really proud you tried.”
- The teacher would go through the other lines of the design with students helping.
- The teacher would then have two assigned helpers review the clay clean-up procedures.
Engagement: Students will be given a handful of clay with which to start making their food clay sculptures. They will be allowed more clay if needed, as some students may need more than others. The students have their sculpture tools on their table, which are shared between two to three students.
Recap and/or Transition: The lesson is teaching about clay, with concepts from the lines of the design. The students are making their favorite food from clay. Today, they are creating clay sculptures.
Closure: Students will share any issues they may have had and how they solved them with the class. If they had a hard time, the class can help them figure it out for next time. Students will tell the teacher what step of the project they are on, and what they will be doing next class.
Reflection: I felt that this part of the lesson went well. The students could reference the lines of design on the wall, so the focus was really on working with clay.
Day 2
Motivation:
- The students gather around the teacher. The teacher demonstrates the proper painting technique and cleans up procedures like so
- TEACHER: What should I wear to paint?
- STUDENT: A smock! (Teacher: Can you show me where they are?)
- TEACHER: Should I do this? (dip whole brush in a cup)
- STUDENTS: NO! Use only a little at a time!
- TEACHER: Should I dip this brush with pink into yellow?
- STUDENTS: NO!
- TEACHER: Can you tell me why not, Alden?
- STUDENT ALDEN: Because otherwise the colors will become messed up and eventually turn to brown
- Students will then take their dried clay sculptures to paint.
Engagement: The students paint at their tables. Once they signal that they are finished by raising their hands, the teacher will review the paint with the students. Students’ artwork is expected to be covered completely to the best of their abilities.
Recap and/or Transition: The lesson is teaching about clay, with concepts from the lines of the design. The students are making their favorite food from clay. Today, they are painting clay sculptures.
Assessment:
ARTWORKS
Did students construct small clay sculptures to be in the shape of their favorite foods?
WRITTEN
Will the students articulate how they made their sculpture using 3-4 vocabulary terms?
DEMONSTRATION
Students will be able to break down the lines of the design to make their food clay sculpture?
Closure: Students will be given a checklist of the different lines of design, and they are expected to check the ones they used. This is also an exit slip about how they felt about the project, telling the teacher about how they felt they did with it and the lesson.
Relevant theories and/or research in best practices in education, art, or art education:
Hafeli, Mary (2015). Exploring Studio Materials: Teaching Creative Art Making to Children. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Mary Hafeli has an excellent chapter on Sculpture that inspired one of the lessons.
Peterson, Rosemary, and Felton-Collins, Victoria (1986) The Piaget Handbook for Teachers and Parents: Children in the Age of Discovery, Preschool-Third Grade. New York, New York: Teachers College Press.
Piaget was a well-known psychologist, and his theory of childhood development is well-used and proven true.
https://www.additude.com/20-adhd-accommodations-that-work/
They list common ADHD accommodations.
https://www.smore.com/441s-the-5-types-of-lines
The list of lines of the design.
http://www.getty.edu/education/teachers/building_lessons/formal_analysis.html
They list the lines of design in more detail.
https://www.teachspeced.ca/fine-motor-skills
They list common accommodations for students with fine motor skills problems.
https://www.thoughtco.com/lesson-plan-step-5-closure-2081851
They list different closures that teachers can use in lesson plans.