Earth Day Sculpture Lesson

This is a short unit, it filled about 3-4 weeks for my kiddos. This is an art and arts integration lesson created for the 4th graders. The 4th graders April science lessons revolved around Earth Day and insects. That being said, I integrated that homeroom content by talking about recycling and then we created some preliminary sketches and finally a recycled material sculpture of our favorite insects (or arachnids - they are not the same, as I was reminded).

We begin each lesson with a Visual Thinking Strategies activity. The students look at two images and respond via Peardeck. The questions are not leading they are simply, "what do you see?" followed by "What do you think?" and lastly "What questions do you have?" We complete two together and one as homework. Then in art studio class time we completed sketches and our sculptures over two weeks. The last week of the unit we completed the assessment. There is a short quiz we do together and then each student completes a self assessment of their work throughout the unit.

Learning standards

National Standards:

VA: Cr1.1.4a Brainstorm multiple approaches to creative art or design problem.

VA: Pr5.1.3a Identify exhibit space and prepare works of art, including artist statements, for presentation.

VA: Re9.1. 4a Apply one set of criteria to evaluate more than one work of art.

VA: Cn11.1.4a Through observation infer information about time, place, and culture in which a work of art was created.

learning objectives

Week 1

Students complete looking and talking about art activity as a class and are assigned one as homework. In studio time, talk about recycling and insects.

Week 2

We go over homework activity all together and look at some of our at home and at school recycled materials! In studio time, I pitched a sketch assignment and then gave students work time.

Week 3

During arts integration students volunteered to show their sketches or talk about their ideas for an informal, in-progress critique. In studio time I pitched the final sculpture project and gave the students the rest of the time to work.

Week 4

On the final week, we started with final critique. This is just a touch more formal. A peardeck assists them in staying focused on one piece at a time. In studio we then completed a final assessment together and students were to complete their self-assessment rubrics as homework.

1/7

Students will discuss and create sculptures out of found materials. The sculptures can be of any insect they learn about in homeroom.

Students will enter the familiar critique space once to discuss their in progress works and another time to discuss their final works.

Students will respond in the Peardeck to each others works of art offering advice (“glows” and “grows”) based on prompt.

Students will be able to connect this lesson to their homeroom class content and to issues outside of the classroom relevant to recycling and Earth month.