Masters in the Classroom Curriculum Track
2008 Whole School’s Institute
Presenters- Jeni Chandler and Tara Harris
*Each of the lessons/activities we prepared can be correlated to a
skill(s) in the Mississippi Curriculum Framework.
DAY 1
Picasso Silly Portraits / Bio-Poems
To introduce Pablo Picasso’s style, students cut out facial features, hair, bodies/clothes, arms, legs, etc. that reminded them of themselves from different pages of magazines and arranged them on black construction paper to make silly portraits. Then, participants wrote bio-poems to share as a way to “get to know” each other. (Bio-poem example- Line #1: First name, Line #2- Daughter/son of…, Line #3- Who would like to visit…, etc.)
Comparing portraits by Picasso (Venn diagram)
In preparation for this activity, we found various portraits from the Internet by Picasso and printed them out. (We tried to find portraits that varied in style, color, etc.) Participants were given a folder of several of these portraits and were asked to sort them however they like. This is called an open sort. Some sorted by color, style, shape, etc.
Groups of students were also given 2 of Picasso’s portraits and created a Venn Diagram to compare/contrast aspects of each.
Anticipatory Guide using Picasso and the Girl with the Ponytail: A Story about Pablo Picasso
We listed several statements about this book and Picasso’s life- some were true and some false. Participants decided before we read them this book if the statements were true or false. This made participants motivated to want to learn more about this subject as they quickly changed their answers if they heard something they marked wrong while we read this book aloud.
*This book seems to be more appropriate for 3rd grade and above!
Three Musicians (print) / Questioning Activity
As we viewed Picasso’s Three Musicians, I asked participants questions of various thinking levels such as: What do you see?, What do you hear?, What shapes do you see?, What style would you consider this print? Why?, What title would you give this print? Why?
DAY 2
Vincent Van Gogh- Scavenger Hunt
We chose four Van Gogh prints and labeled them #1-4. We listed various items from each print, and participants looked closely at each print to locate the items. They wrote the corresponding number of the print beside each item. This was a fun activity to familiarize students with Van Gogh’s work.
Van Gogh Café (book)- Visualization activity
This book is full of vivid detailed descriptions. We chose a page from this book to read aloud. Participants drew what they visualized after we read an excerpt from the book to them.
Room at Arles (print)- adjective lesson, sketching, Cinquain poem
Participants named nouns in this print. We wrote the nouns on sticky notes and posted them around the print. Then, we added adjectives to describe each noun. We also taught a quick art lesson on how to add depth to a picture when drawing an interior room. Participants chose a room from their home to sketch adding as many details as they could think of. Next, participants wrote a Cinquain (5-line) poem to describe the room they sketched. The lines of the poem were as follows:
Person’s Name with “ ’s ”
2 adjectives to describe the room
3 verbs to tell what they like to do in this room
A four word phrase to further describe the room
The word “Room”
Sunflowers (print)- math lesson and still life
Each group was given an artificial sunflower. They used rulers to measure the sunflowers. Participants then read information on a sunflower seed package and information about sunflowers from the encyclopedia. Participants compared the height of the artificial sunflower and real sunflowers. Participants were then given sunflower seeds to use as centers for their own sketches of sunflowers. Math skills were used to divide the seeds among equal groups. Next, participants were taught the process of drawing and painting a still life of sunflowers.
DAY 3
Seen Art (book)- A book that deals with art in a fun, imaginative way.
Football Players (prints)- Math lesson
These were two prints that show football players wearing jerseys. Participants used the numbers on the jerseys to create math problems that related to the grade they taught.
Escher Bowl (print)- Tessellations
To begin this lesson, participants created a T-chart that showed Patterns in Nature/Human-Made Patterns. A great activity to go along with this part of the lesson would be to take a school tour to look for patterns in our world. Then, we gave the definition of a tessellation which is a repeated pattern with no gaps or overlaps. Participants were given a 3x3 square in which they drew a design from corner to corner, cut it out, and then slid it to the opposite side (without turning it) and taped it down. They did the same for the other straight side of the square. By doing this to the square, they created a transformation. Then, participants traced their shape onto a 12x18 piece of construction paper. They slid the shape until it fit perfectly into the first traced shape and traced again until they filled their paper with this repeated pattern with no gaps or overlaps- a Slide Tessellation (translation). Many participants decided their shape looked like an animal or an object, and they added details to each traced shape! We discussed the three types of tessellations (translation, rotation, and reflection) that students are required to know on the MCT2.
Composition (print)- visualization/geometry activity
To prepare for this lesson, we listed a set of oral directions that corresponded to the shapes and lines in this print. We read the set of oral directions aloud while students drew on their paper what they heard. This was a great listening and visualization activity and a great review or assessment for recognizing and producing geometric shapes.
The Circus (print)- Vocabulary activity, positional words, categorizing, pointillism art
Participants played a vocabulary game called “Vocabulary Genie.” They found sticky notes under their table that had meanings/clues to vocabulary words found in the painting. Participants had to use the clues to figure out the vocabulary word. This painting was also used to teach ordinal/positional words. Another open sort activity included participants categorizing animal cards into different groups. We then taught participants how to use pointillism to create an animal (painting dots with Q-tips).
DAY 4
Landforms using a variety of prints- Memory Mania (questioning activity), Movement activity
We intentionally chose various prints that included pictures of landforms. To familiarize participants with these prints, they wrote five questions about details in the print along with the answers in small groups. Then, we rotated the prints with the sets of questions around to each group. One person was chosen as the leader of each group who kept the time and asked the questions. The other team members stared at the print for 1 minute and then were asked the questions about the print without looking at it. The prints and questions were rotated to all small groups. (Memory Mania)
Participants, still in small groups, also chose one landform to do research on. They used text books or other reference material to learn about their landform. Next, they decided as a group how to use their bodies to demonstrate the landform (no talking allowed- like Charades). Each group demonstrated their landforms while the rest of the groups guessed what landform they were portraying. Then, each group had to give a brief oral presentation on what they learned about their landform in the research.
Urban and Rural using a variety of prints
We found several prints that portrayed urban or rural scenes. Participants viewed each print and categorized them “urban” and “rural” and had to tell why.
The Jungle and Surprise Storm in the Forest (prints)- Comparative adjectives
Participants wrote sentences using comparative adjectives to compare these two paintings.
Turn Him Loose Bill (print)- verbs and adverbs
Participants wrote action verbs on sticky notes and placed these around the painting. We then went back and added adverbs to tell more about the action words.
Drama activity using a variety of prints
We chose several prints that included pictures of people in a variety of settings that looked as if they were interacting with each other. Small groups analyzed a print and wrote a short skit/conversation that correlated to what was happening in the print. Each group performed their skit. To reinforce the concept of using quotation marks, you could have students write the conversations.
Integrated grade level lesson plan
Participants chose a print and used a web to plan an integrated art lesson plan.