1/23/15

Today the students removed their plaster fossils from the clay and buried it in a shoe box filled with sand.  They switched boxes with another classmate and used brushes to “excavate”  their fossil.  Before they started excavating, I asked them to imagine they were from another planet from a far away galaxy.  They were to pretend that they landed their space ship on planet earth 1,000 years in the future and only discovered the objects that we had left behind.  They were given a writing prompt to 

1. describe what they saw from the perspective of an alien. 

2. explain what you think it was used for (from the perspective an alien). 

I showed them an example of a creature that perceives our world differently by showing a clip from the T.V. show Fraggle Rock.

After watching the video clip, I asked a few questions like “What did Uncle Traveling Matt discover?  What did he think it was?”  Etc. 

Once I was confident that they had an idea of what kinds of things they would be writing, we let them excavate their classmate’s fossils. 

Fossils and Art

Subject Concepts		Art Concepts
Content Covered: Fossils		Content Covered: Landscapes, perspective,
State Standards & Objectives (USOE/UEN): Standard 4, Objective 1 Impression/Tracks and Mineral Replacement a.Identify features of fossils that can be used to compare them to living organisms that are familiar (e.g., shape, size and structure of skeleton, patterns of leaves).  b.     Describe three ways fossils are formed in sedimentary rock (i.e., preserved organisms, mineral replacement of organisms, impressions or tracks).		State Standards & Objectives (USOE/UEN): Standard 2,Objective 1 a.      Discuss how height placement creates an illusion of depth in artworks.  d.     Identify evidence of depth, shadow, color, and mood in artwork.  Objective 2 a.      Draw the base of a distant object higher up on the drawing page than the bases of objects that are meant to be in the foreground.  Standard 3, Objective 2 a.     Create a work of art using inspiration from hobbies or interests
Learning Outcomes: ·       The student will be able to identify fossil features and compare them to living organisms by drawing a landscape that incorporates prehistoric wildlife. ·       The student will be able to identify preserved organisms, mineral replacement of organisms, and impression fossils by imitating the different fossils types with clay and plaster.		Learning Outcomes: ·       The student will be able to draw a landscape using perspective techniques such as creating depth through height placement, shading, and the location of objects within the page.  ·       The student will create a fossil that preserves an artifact from his or her own life.
Lesson Plan
Objectives: The students will gain a better understanding of fossils and the process of how they are formed through hands on experience with sculpture. Students will learn perspective-drawing techniques and apply their imagination to analyze fossil images. Assessments: Student’s drawings will be used to assess their ability to render a landscape using aerial perspective and object scale and location.  Students will write a response after observing a classmates fossil that describes and explains what they see. The teacher will verbally check for understanding to see if students can connect their fossils with preserved organisms, mineral replacement, and impression fossils.
Materials Needed: Plastic bowls Air-dry clay Objects from students Plaster of Paris Shoeboxes Sand Brushes Colored construction paper Oil pastels Print out images of different fossils Vocabulary: Environment Impression Fossil Organism Replacement Foreground Middle ground Back ground Horizon line Aerial perspective	Lesson Sequence: Day 1: Give students a weeks notice to bring in an object from home that can fit in a small plastic bowl and that also can get a little dirty Hand out bowls with a ball of air-dry clay (3 inches in diameter) Have students push the clay down flat and press their object with enough pressure to go half-way down.  After pushing it down, have them lift the objects out and ask them to identify what type of clay the clay resembles.  (10 minutes) Have students take their bowls to the counter and sit down to move on to the drawing part of the lesson.  (the teacher pours plaster while students draw) (5 minutes) Let the students choose from a variety of fossil images.  Show examples of similar fossils and describe the details and compare them with living organisms.  (5 minutes) Show examples of prehistoric landscape illustrations.  As students to look at their fossil image and imagine it as a live organism and what kind of environment it would live in.  (5 minutes) Explain perspective techniques such as horizon lines, aerial perspective, and the location and scale of objects in a picture.  Show examples of prehistoric illustrations and have students point the different techniques.  (10 minutes) Demonstrate drawing techniques with oil pastels and construction paper. (10 minutes) Give students the assignment to draw with oil pastels on construction paper fulfilling these three requirements: 1. Draw a landscape with the type of environment that you think your organism would have lived in. 2. Include a horizon line 3. Draw your fossil organism 3 times in 3 different sizes going up the page to create the illusion of depth. (45 minutes) Day 2: Ask students in advance to bring a shoebox from home Give instructions to remove the plaster from the clay.  While students are separating the fossils, the teacher will be putting sand in their shoeboxes.   (10 minutes) Have students bury their fossils under the sand face up and switch with a classmate. (3 minutes) Explain that they are to pretend they are aliens from another planet landing on planet earth 1,000 years into the future and collecting artifacts from our lives.  How would a foreign alien perceive the objects we leave behind?   (3 minutes) Show Fraggle Rock clip (1 minute) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKPnyKiDcYU&list=PLC3CB071ED8F467A6&index=2 Discuss how Uncle Traveling Matt perceives the bagpipes.  Go over how he describes and interprets his observations.  (3 minutes) Give students 2 prompts to answer in writing while excavating their classmate’s fossil. (3 minutes)  1.     Describe what your fossil looks like from an aliens perspective. 2.     Explain what it was used for from an aliens perspective.  Hand out brushes and instruct them on how to carefully brush away the sand to reveal the fossil.  (15 minutes) Have students raise their hands to share their writing response with the class. (5 minutes)

After we finished the fossil activity, we started a new lesson and jumped into scientific drawing. The students went outside for a couple of minutes to collect an object from a living organism like a leaf or flower.  Once they had their objects, I showed them some examples of scientific sketches and artwork that document information from a specimen to distinguish it from other plant-life.  

 

I showed them a few drawing techniques to help them draw their own object. The first technique was drawing objects into basic shapes to initiate the beginning stages of a drawing.  I showed them examples, demonstrated by drawing a water bottle as a simple cylinder, and then gave the students time to practice drawing their object as a basic shape. 

Then I showed them how to do scribble gestures.  I showed them some examples again, demonstrated a scribble drawing of my water bottle, and then gave them time to practice. 

Lastly, I introduced them to blind contour drawing.  After showing examples, I demonstrated by drawing my water bottle without looking at my pen and then I gave them time to practice.  

 I also talked to them about doing birds eye and worms eye perspective drawing.

  I gave examples of scientific sketches that show both views of a specimen. 

The students were given time to draw their object again, but from both perspectives.  This turned out to be challenging for those students who had flat objects like leaves.  I think if I were to do it again I would have warned them about getting flat objects or I would have given them more instruction on how to foreshorten objects, although I think might be a little advanced for 4^th graders. 

Scientific Drawings

Name of Art Scholar: Rachel Jackson                     

Name of Teacher: Jayme Gandara

Subject Concepts		Art Concepts
Content Covered: Utah plants		Content Covered: Drawing techniques
State Standards & Objectives (USOE/UEN): Science Standard 5, Objective 2 a. Identify common plants and animals that inhabit Utah's forests, wetlands, and deserts.		State Standards & Objectives (USOE/UEN): Visual Art Standard 1 Objective 1 a.     Draw objects from a variety of perspectives; e.g., directly beneath, bird's-eye view, below, from the level of the surface upon which it sits.  b.     Use blocking-in, gesture drawing, and/or stick figures as start-up skills for drawing.  e.     Observe and render the details of real objects with a high degree of accuracy; e.g., veins in a leaf, wrinkles in a cloth, mortar between brick, ridges in bark.
Learning Outcomes: ·      The student will be able to observe and draw Utah plants from a scientific perspective.		Learning Outcomes: ·      The student will be able to draw an object from a bird’s eye perspective and a worm’s eye perspective. ·      The student will be able to draw an object by blocking it in with basic shapes. ·      The student will be able to do a gesture drawing.  ·      The student will be able to render the details of an object through blind contour drawing.
Lesson Plan
Objectives: The students will learn academic drawing skills by observing objects from their outdoor environment.  They will be exposed to scientific drawings and practice drawing from a scientist’s perspective.  Assessment: Student’s drawings will be assessed to see if they grasp various drawing techniques.
Materials Needed: Natural objects from outside Pencils Paper Vocabulary: Gesture drawing Blind contour drawing Birds eye perspective Worms eye perspective	Lesson Sequence: Take students outside to collect an object from a living organism. (ex: a twig, leaf, peach pit, etc.) (5 minutes) Show examples of scientific drawings (5 minutes) Show examples of blocking in basic shapes.  Demonstrate and then give students time to practice drawing their object.  (10 minutes) Show examples of gesture drawings.  Demonstrate and then give students time to practice drawing their object.  (10 minutes) Show examples of blind contour drawings.  Demonstrate and then give students time to practice drawing their object.  (10 minutes) Show examples of bird’ss eye perspective.  Demonstrate and then give students time to practice drawing their object from a bird’s eye perspective.    (10) Show example of worm’s eye perspective .  Demonstrate and then give students time to practice drawing their object from a worm’s eye perspective.  (10)

Visit: http://www.uen.org/core/ to find UEN/USOE standards.