Invention Convention K-1

INVENTION CONVENTION

INVENTION CONVENTION

Learning Description

Challenge your students in a new way as they work collaboratively to imagine inventions that could address class problem. Students will imagine the different components of the invention using sound and movement to embody it and bring it to life.

 

Learning Targets

GRADE BAND: K-1
CONTENT FOCUS: THEATRE, SCIENCE & ELA
LESSON DOWNLOADS:

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"I Can" Statements

“I Can…”

  • I can collaborate effectively with others to clearly demonstrate our invention using my voice and body.
  • I can clearly articulate, describe, and illustrate my ideas through writing and drawing.

Essential Questions

  • What is an invention?
  • How can I work with a team to develop and enact an invention?
  • How can theatre techniques be used to communicate ideas?

 

Georgia Standards

Curriculum Standards

Kindergarten:

ELAGSEKSL1 Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about kindergarten topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups. a. Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., listening to others and taking turns speaking about the topics and texts under discussion). b. Continue a conversation through multiple exchanges.

ELAGSEKSL4 Describe familiar people, places, things, and events and, with prompting and support, provide additional detail.

ELAGSEKSL5 Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions as desired to provide additional detail.

ELAGSEKSL6 Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.

 

Grade 1:

ELAGSE1SL1 Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 1 topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups. a. Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., listening to others with care, speaking one at a time about the topics and texts under discussion). b. Build on others’ talk in conversations by responding to the comments of others through multiple exchanges. c. Ask questions to clear up any confusion about the topics and texts under discussion.

ELAGSE1SL4 Describe people, places, things, and events with relevant details, expressing ideas and feelings clearly.

ELAGSE1SL5 Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions when appropriate to clarify ideas, thoughts, and feelings.

ELAGSE1SL6 Produce complete sentences when appropriate to task and situation.

Arts Standards

Kindergarten:

TAK.CR.1 Organize, design, and refine theatrical work.

TAK.CR.2 Develop scripts through theatrical techniques.

TAK.PR.1 Act by communicating and sustaining roles in formal and informal environments.

 

Grade 1:

TA1.CR.1 Organize, design, and refine theatrical work.

TA1.CR.2 Develop scripts through theatrical techniques.

TA1.PR.1 Act by communicating and sustaining roles in formal and informal environments.

 

South Carolina Standards

Curriculum Standards

Kindergarten:

COMMUNICATION - Meaning and Context

Standard 1: Interact with others to explore ideas and concepts, communicate meaning, and develop logical interpretations through collaborative conversations; build upon the ideas of others to clearly express one’s own views while respecting diverse perspectives.

1.2 Practice the skills of taking turns, listening to others, and speaking clearly.

1.4 Participate in conversations with varied partners about focused grade level topics and texts in small and large groups.

1.5 Explain personal ideas and build on the ideas of others by responding and relating to comments made.

 

Standard 3: Communicate information through strategic use of multiple modalities and multimedia to enrich understanding when presenting ideas and information.

3.2 Use appropriate props, images, or illustrations to support verbal communication.

 

Grade 1:

COMMUNICATION - Meaning and Context

Standard 1: Interact with others to explore ideas and concepts, communicate meaning, and develop logical interpretations through collaborative conversations; build upon the ideas of others to clearly express one’s own views while respecting diverse perspectives.

1.2 Practice the skills of taking turns, listening to others, and speaking clearly.

1.4 Participate in shared conversations with varied partners about focused grade level topics and texts in small and large groups.

1.5 Explain personal ideas and build on the ideas of others by responding and relating to comments made in multiple exchanges.

 

Standard 3: Communicate information through strategic use of multiple modalities and multimedia to enrich understanding when presenting ideas and information.

3.2 Use visual displays to support verbal communication and clarify ideas, thoughts, and feelings.

Arts Standards

Anchor Standard 3: I can act in improvised scenes and written scripts.

 

Key Vocabulary

Content Vocabulary

  • Invention - Something that has been created or devised, typically a process or device
  • Inventor - A person who created or devised a particular process or device or who creates or devises processes and devices as an occupation
  • Machine - An apparatus using or applying mechanical power and having several parts, each with a definite function, that together perform a particular task

Arts Vocabulary

  • Voice - An actor’s tool that we shape and change to portray the way a character speaks or sounds
  • Body - An actor’s tool that we shape and change to portray the way a character looks, walks, or moves
  • Ensemble - A ensemble of actors working together

 

Materials

  • Whiteboard or smartboard
  • Markers
  • Paper
  • Pencils and other writing and drawing implements

 

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

Machine Activity

  • Lead students through a traditional theatre exercise called the “Machine”.
    • Discuss how machines have different parts that often have repetitive movements and sounds.
    • Inform students that in this activity they will use their voices and bodies to become parts of a machine, and as an ensemble they will create a machine.
  • Model for students creating a repetitive movement and sound (e.g., arm rotating in a circle, voice saying “Wee-OPP!  Wee-OPP!”)  Emphasize that the movement and sound can be random, but must be sustainable, so it should not be too difficult, require too much energy, or strain the voice.
  • Have a volunteer come to the front or the center to establish the first component of the machine.
  • One by one, have students add on to the machine.  Emphasize that they can face in different directions, assume different levels, and move and make sounds with different rhythms.
    • Remind them that new components can reflect or connect with existing components.
    • Coach students who have difficulty coming up with ideas.
    • Continue to add components until all students are part of the machine.
  • Option: Give the instruction that the machine moves faster and gets louder for an exciting crescendo until it breaks down.

 

Work Session

  • Define inventor and invention, and discuss the role of inventors in society and in history, identifying some famous inventions/inventors throughout history.
    • Ask the following questions:
      • “What do you think is the greatest thing that has ever been invented?
      • Can you name some famous inventors and what they are famous for inventing?”. Students may need help with this, so having some examples that students encounter everyday, such as cars, lightbulbs, pencils, etc. will be helpful.
        • Examples: Alexander Graham Bell – telephone; George Washington Carver – agricultural processes; Margaret Knight – folding paper bag; Willis Haviland Carrier – air conditioner; Thomas Edison – light bulb; Joseph Dixon – pencil; Sarah Boone – ironing board; Garrett Morgan – traffic light; John S. Pemberton – CocaCola; Madame C.J. Walker – hair care products; Isaac Merrit Singer – sewing machine; Mary Anderson – windshield wipers; Grace Hopper – computer coding.
  • Tell students, “Now we will become inventors!” Present students with a problem that they can relate to, such as, the class wants to have a rabbit as a class pet, but the rabbit must stay at school over the weekends. How will the rabbit get food and water?
    • As students share invention ideas, record them on the board.
  • Assign working teams of two to three students.
  • In their ensembles, students should discuss which idea they would like to develop.  Work with the class to ensure that a variety of ideas will be represented.
  • Have ensembles discuss the components of their invention, and how it would work.
    • “What parts do you see?  What are their colors, shapes, movements and sounds?  How would the parts connect with and affect each other?  What would power the machine?  What would be put into the machine, and/or what would come out of it?  What scientific processes are involved in your invention (e.g. simple machines, forces, heat, electricity, magnets, etc.)?”
    • Have the groups draw pictures of their ideas.
    • During the ensemble work time, conference with the ensembles to coach them on the development of their ideas.
  • Explain, “Now that you have imagined and developed amazing inventions, you will work as an ensemble using your actors' tools – voice and body – to bring them to life”.
    • Explain that an ensemble is a group of performers that work together and that an effective ensemble takes turns, listens to everyone’s ideas, is careful to be safe, and takes time to practice.
  • Have ensembles decide which component of the invention each member of the ensemble will act out.
    • Remind students that they will use their bodies to create the movements of the invention, and their voices to create the sounds.
    • For sounds, they can also use body percussion (e.g., claps, stomps).
    • Depending on the nature of the invention, it is acceptable for one student to have multiple roles, or for two students to work together to create one component.
  • Have the ensembles stand and work in assigned areas of the classroom to rehearse and refine the demonstrations of their invention.
    • Have students practice an introduction to their demonstration with the name of their invention. Instruct students to be prepared to explain how their invention works after they demonstrate it.
  • Invention Convention: Have the ensembles present their demonstrations to the class, with their introduction and explanation. Allow time for questions and answers of each ensemble about their invention.

 

Closing Reflection

  • Reflect on each demonstration after it is presented, discussing the merits of the invention idea and how the ensemble used their voices and bodies to demonstrate it.
  • Have each student write about their ensemble’s invention and/or draw a picture of it, describing/illustrating what it does.

 

Assessments

Formative

Teachers will assess students’ understanding of the content throughout the lesson by observing students’ participation in the activator, discussion of what an invention is and what inventors do, and collaboration with their groups to design and perform an invention to address a class need.

 

Summative

CHECKLIST

  • Students can collaborate effectively as an ensemble to clearly demonstrate their invention ideas using their voices and bodies.
  • Students can clearly articulate, describe, and illustrate their ideas in their writings and drawings.

 

DIFFERENTIATION 

Acceleration: Challenge students to identify their own problem and develop an idea for an invention that will address the problem.

Remediation:  

  • Engage in the process as a whole class, rather than in small ensembles, focusing on a single invention idea.
  • For the opening “Machine” activity, involve smaller numbers of students in several iterations, rather than the entire class at once.
  • Allow multiple students to work together to become a particular component of the invention so that they can do the movements and sounds together.

 ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

  • Picture books about individual inventors, such as The Boy Who Invented TV (Philo Farnsworth), by Kathleen Krull; Counting on Catherine (Catherine Johnson), by Helaine Becker; and June Almeida, Virus Detective, by Suzanne Slade.
  • Books about the invention process, such as The Most Magnificent Thing, by Ashley Spires; Rosie Revere, Engineer, by Andrea Beaty; and What Do You Do With an Idea?, by Kobi Yamada.
  • PBS Learning Media, “What Are Inventions?”

*This integrated lesson provides differentiated ideas and activities for educators that are aligned to a sampling of standards. Standards referenced at the time of publishing may differ based on each state’s adoption of new standards.

Ideas contributed by: Susie Spear Purcell and Barry Stewart Mann. Updated by Katy Betts.

Revised and copyright: July 2024 @ ArtsNOW

 

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Collaborative Kandinsky

COLLABORATIVE KANDINSKY

Collaborative Kandinsky

Learning Description

Students will review some of Kandinsky’s works to find shapes. Students will create a collaborative piece of art using shapes and lines that is inspired by the artwork of Wassily Kandinsky.

 

Learning Targets

GRADE BAND: K-1
CONTENT FOCUS: Math
LESSON DOWNLOADS:

Download PDF of this Lesson

"I Can" Statements

“I Can…”

  • I can identify different types of shapes and lines.
  • I can use different types of shapes and lines to create an original artwork.

Essential Questions

  • How can you utilize visual images to learn math concepts?
  • How can you create an original work of art using a variety of shapes and lines?

 

Georgia Standards

Curriculum Standards

Kindergarten: 

K.GSR.8 Identify, describe, and compare basic shapes encountered in the environment, and form two-dimensional shapes and three-dimensional figures.

Grade 1: 

1.GSR.4 Compose shapes, analyze the attributes of shapes, and relate their parts to the whole.

1.GSR.4.1 Identify common two dimensional shapes and three dimensional figures, sort and classify them by their attributes and build and draw shapes that possess defining attributes.

1.GSR.4.2 Compose two-dimensional shapes (rectangles, squares, triangles, half-circles, and quarter-circles) and three dimensional figures (cubes, rectangular prisms, cones, and cylinders) to create a shape formed of two or more common shapes and compose new shapes from the composite shape.

Arts Standards

Kindergarten: 

VAKMC.3 Selects and uses subject matter, symbols, and/or ideas to communicate meaning. 

VAKPR.1 Creates artworks based on personal experience and selected themes.

VAKPR.2 Understands and applies media, techniques, and processes of two-dimensional works of art (e.g., drawing, painting, printmaking, mixed media) using tools and materials in a safe and appropriate manner to develop skills. 

VAKAR.1 Discusses his or her own artwork and the artwork of others. 

Grade 1:

VA1MC.3 Selects and uses subject matter, symbols, and ideas to communicate meaning. 

VA1PR.1 Creates artworks based on personal experience and selected themes. 

VA1PR.2 Understands and applies media, techniques, and processes of two-dimensional works of art (drawing, painting, printmaking, mixed media) using tools and materials in a safe and appropriate manner to develop skills. 

VA1AR.1: Discusses his or her artwork and the artwork of others.

 

South Carolina Standards

Curriculum Standards

Grade 1:

1.NSBT.1.c. Read, write and represent numbers to 100 using concrete models, standard form, and equations in expanded form1.NSBT.4 Add through 99 using concrete models, drawings, and strategies based on place value to: a. add a two-digit number and a one-digit number, understanding that sometimes it is necessary to compose a ten (regroup)

Arts Standards

Grade 1:

Anchor Standard 3: I can act in improvised scenes and written scripts.

 

Key Vocabulary

Content Vocabulary

Place Value - The value of where the digit is in the number, such as units, tens, hundreds, etc.

Arts Vocabulary

Statue (Statues) - An actor frozen in a pose.

Tableau (Tableaux) - A group of actors frozen to create a picture.

 

Materials

Plus (+) and equal (=) sign placards that can stand on the floor (one possibility – written with marker on an inverted file folder - or part thereof – and capable of standing like a tent).

 

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

Letter Statues
Introduce or review what a statue is – an actor in a frozen pose. Explain that the students will make letter statues with their bodies. Call out one letter at a time and have them make the letters. Use a drum, another percussion instrument, or clapping to cue the statues. Encourage students to be creative, using full body, limbs, fingers, etc., and exploring the possibilities of standing, kneeling, sitting, lying down, etc., as appropriate for the classroom space. Use observational language to comment on the different ways in which students use their bodies to create the statues.

 

Work Session

Number Statues

  • Repeat the process with numbers (single digits). After exploring multiple possibilities, inform students that they will focus on making number statues that use their whole bodies, and for which they will remain standing. Practice standing number statues.
  • Ask students how they would make a statue of a number up to 100. Elicit from them, or guide them to, the idea of working in pairs or trios.
  • Introduce or review what a tableau is – a group of actors frozen in a picture. Explain that tableaux often create pictures with characters and settings, but the tableaux today will be of numbers and number sentences.
  • Invite two, and then three, volunteers to model creating a tableaux up to 100. Ask students what each digit in a multiple-digit number represents. Introduce or review the concept of place value. Ensure that students understand that the digit to the left represents a higher place value than the digit to the right, and identify the units: ones, tens, and hundreds places.
  • Have students work in pairs to create a 2-digit number tableau (full-body, standing). Have them work together to say the name of the number together out loud. After creating a number, have them switch positions and say the name of the number with the digits switched. Move among the pairs to confirm that they are expressing each number correctly.
  • If students have grasped the 2-digit numbers and are ready for 3-digit numbers, have them repeat the process in trios. Each trio can explore all the possibilities with their three digits (if the digits are all different, e.g., 1, 2, and 3, there will be six permutations: 123, 132, 213, 231, 312, 321.)
  • Introduce the idea of moving from number tableaux to addition sentence tableaux.
  • Invite three students to model a simple addition sentence tableau, e.g., 3 + 4 = 7. Have the students assume their positions, and then have them speak the sentence together. (Note: this is an opportunity, if relevant, to introduce or reinforce the Commutative Property of addition by having the addends switch places.)
  • Provide plus and equal sign tent cards and have students work in trios to create addition sentence tableaux.
  • Use the same process, first modeling and then having the students work in small groups, to move into more complex addition sentences: adding two 1-digit numbers that result in a 2-digit sum (e.g., 5 + 7 = 12), adding a 1- and a 2- digit number together, without and then with sums that require making a new ten (e.g., 31 + 7 = 38, and then 29 + 3 = 32), and then adding two 2-digit numbers, without and then with sums that require carrying to the tens and hundreds places (e.g., 45 + 12 = 57, then 24 + 19 = 43, then 74 + 38 = 112).

Teaching Tips:

  • As appropriate to the class, use established addition strategies (counting on, making ten, etc.) to calculate sums, and advance only as far in the sequence of complexity as the class can manage.
  • This may be a lesson that is done over time. The first step may best be suited for when single digit addition is taught, then adding 2-digit addition as the concept is taught, and so on.

 

Closing Reflection

Ask students: How did you use your bodies to create letter and number statues and addition sentence tableaux? Which were more challenging, letter statues or number statues? How do we determine the name and value of a 2- or 3-digit number? How did you determine your place or role in the number sentence?

 

Assessments

Formative

  • Students will identify shapes and describe where they are in Kandinsky’s artwork through group discussion.
  • Students will be able to explain the difference between two-and three-dimensional shapes.

 

Summative

  • Student collaborative artwork with required shapes and lines
  • Student scavenger hunt/checklist for closing/reflection

 

Differentiation

Acceleration: After the assessment, have the students practice combining two or more simple shapes to create a different shape.  Example:  You can combine two triangles to make a rectangle.

Remediation: Provide students with a printed copy of the types of shapes as a visual guide. Provide a visual guide for the types of shapes and lines that the student is required to include in their part of the artwork.

 ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

*This integrated lesson provides differentiated ideas and activities for educators that are aligned to a sampling of standards. Standards referenced at the time of publishing may differ based on each state’s adoption of new standards.

 Ideas contributed by: Carolynn Stoddard.  Updated by Katy Betts

 Revised and copyright:  August 2022 @ ArtsNOW

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Let’s FACE It… We Love to Learn K-1

LET’S FACE IT… WE LOVE TO LEARN

LET’S FACE IT… WE LOVE TO LEARN

Learning Description

Students will visualize a memory by creating a self-portrait with a specific background that represents the memory. Students will look at how the folk artist, Howard Finster, incorporates writing into his portraits. Students will then add personal narratives to their self-portraits, integrating visual art with narrative writing, thinking deeply about who they are.

 

Learning Targets

GRADE BAND: K-1
CONTENT FOCUS: Visual Arts & ELA
LESSON DOWNLOADS:

Download PDF of this Lesson

"I Can" Statements

“I Can…”

  • I can use the Elements of Art to create a self-portrait.
  • I can write a narrative based on my self-portrait that has a beginning, middle, and end.
  • I can visualize a memory through art.

Essential Questions

  • How can visual art be used to inspire narrative writing?
  • How can visual art be used to visualize memories?
  • What is a self-portrait?

 

Georgia Standards

Curriculum Standards

Kindergarten:

ELACCKW3:  Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate a single event or several loosely linked events, tell about the events in the order in which they occurred, and provide a reaction to what happened. 

ELACCKSL5:  Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions as desired to provide additional detail.

 

Grade 1: 

ELACC1W3:  Write narratives in which they recount two or more appropriately sequenced events, include some details regarding what happened, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide some sense of closure. 

ELACC1SL5:  Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions when appropriate to clarify ideas, thoughts, and feelings. 

 

Arts Standards

Kindergarten:

VAKCU.2: Views and discusses selected artworks.  

VAKPR.2: Understands and applies media, techniques, and processes of two-dimensional works of art (e.g., drawing, painting, printmaking, mixed media) using tools and materials in a safe and appropriate manner to develop skills.  

Grade 1:

VA1CU.2: Views and discusses selected artworks.  

VA1PR.2: Understands and applies media, techniques, and processes of two-dimensional works of art (drawing, painting, printmaking, mixed-media) using tools and materials in a safe and appropriate manner to develop skills.

 

 

 

South Carolina Standards

Curriculum Standards

Kindergarten

WRITING - Meaning, Context, and Craft

Standard 3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective techniques, well-chosen details, and well structured event sequences.

3.1 Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate a single event or several loosely linked events, to tell about the events in the order in which they occurred, and to provide a reaction to what happened.

 

Grade 1

WRITING - Meaning, Context, and Craft

Standard 3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective techniques, well-chosen details, and well structured event sequences.

3.1 Explore multiple texts to write narratives that recount two or more sequenced events, include details, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide a sense of closure.

 

 

Arts Standards

Anchor Standard 1: I can use the elements and principles of art to create artwork.

Anchor Standard 2: I can use different materials, techniques, and processes to make art.

 

 

Key Vocabulary

Content Vocabulary

  • Personal narrative - A type of writing that tells a story from the author's own life

Arts Vocabulary

  • Elements of Art - The fundamental components that artists use to create visual works
  • Line - An element of art that defines space, contours and outline
  • Shape - A two-dimensional enclosed object
  • Color - An art element with three properties: hue, value and intensity; reflected or absorbed light.  
  • Self-Portrait - A portrait of oneself done by oneself
  • Horizon line - The line that separates the earth from the sky 
  • Proportion - The size of one object compared to another
  • Folk Art - Art produced from an indigenous culture; folk-artists are not formally trained artists–instead, they are self-taught

 

Materials

    • Pencils 
    • Variety of skin toned crayons 
    • Markers or crayons in a variety of colors 
    • Mirrors 
    • White paper 
    • Oval templates for tracing
    • Visual samples of Howard Finster’s portraits 

     

     

    Instructional Design

    Opening/Activating Strategy

    • Students will take turns describing their physical appearance (eye color and shape, skin color, hair color and style, face shape, etc.) to a partner. Encourage students to be specific.
    • Students will then look at themselves in a mirror. Ask students what new details they can add to their descriptions.
    • Allow students to share some of their favorite attributes about themselves.

     

    Work Session

      CREATING SELF-PORTRAITS

      • Show students samples of portraiture art through time to see that it is consistently proportionate, and specifically for this lesson, they will look at Howard Finster’s portraits.
        • Discuss portraits and self-portraits with students, explaining the difference.
      • Ask students what similarities and differences they notice in the portraits. Help students identify proportions in portraits and the spatial and size relationships between the placement of eyes and nose, nose and mouth, etc. 
      • Show students how to use their fingers as rulers to measure their faces (i.e. How long is their nose compared to their index finger? Students will use that form of measurement to recreate their nose on their paper).
        • Show students a visual demonstrating the proper use of line, shape, and proportion to create a portrait. 
        • Help students identify which basic shape makes their head (an oval instead of a circle) and which basic shapes can be used to create a nose, a mouth, eyes, etc.
      • Provide students with white paper and an oval template to outline. 
        • Students will trace the oval on their white paper. This will represent their head.
      • Tell students to draw in the details of their faces; remind them of the things they identified in the opening activity.
        • Provide students with crayons representing various shades of skin tones. 

       

      INCORPORATING PERSONAL NARRATIVES

        • Tell students that they will add a background to their self-portraits. 
        • Explain that the background is what appears farthest away from the viewer. Show students a portrait with a background, such as the “Mona Lisa”.
        • Ask students to visualize a memory such as their first day of school, a favorite trip they’ve taken, etc. Ask them to think about what things they saw, how they felt, etc.
          • Demonstrate to students how to create a horizon line. Explain that what is below the horizon line is on the ground and what is above the horizon line is in the sky.
          • Students will use markers or crayons to draw in the background of their artwork with a scene from their memory. Encourage students to use the entire space on their paper.
        • Tell students that they will be writing about their memories. 
        • Show students images of Howard Finster’s artwork and direct students to notice how he incorporates writing into his art. 
        • Ask students to reflect on their memory identifying a sequence of events including a beginning, middle, and end. 
        • Provide students with paper and instruct them to write about their memory using complete sentences (as appropriate for grade level). 
          • Narratives should have a beginning, middle, and end.

       

      Closing Reflection

      • Students will reflect on their artwork using “two glows and a grow”. Students will identify two things in their artwork and writing that they are proud of and one thing that they would like to improve.
      • Provide students an opportunity to share their artwork with the class and explain how their artwork tells the viewer about their narrative

      Assessments

      Formative

      Teacher will assess student learning through observing students’ responses in class discussion and their progress on their self-portraits.

       

       

      Summative

      CHECKLIST

      • Students can create a self-portrait using the Elements of Art.
      • Students can visualize a memory by creating a background for their self-portrait.
      • Students can write a personal narrative about a memory that has a beginning, middle, and end.

       

       

       

      Differentiation

      Acceleration: Students should create a portrait for a character in a story they are reading. Students should add a background that shows something that happened in the story.

       

      Remediation: 

      • Students should be provided with a graphic organizer to help them write their narrative. 
      • Allow students to orally tell their narrative.

       

       ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

      • Examples of portraiture
      • Story writing graphic organizer
      • Facial proportions visual
      • “Howard Finster.” Artnet.Com, www.artnet.com/artists/howard-finster/3. Accessed 26 June 2023.
      • Teacher Note: Folk Art at the High Museum of Art: The High is dedicated to supporting and collecting works by Southern artists and is distinguished as the first general museum in North America to have a full-time curator devoted to folk and self-taught art. The nucleus of the folk art collection is the T. Marshall Hahn Collection, donated in 1996, and Judith Alexander's gift of 130 works by Atlanta artist Nellie Mae Rowe. Other artists the High has collected in depth in this field include the Reverend Howard Finster, Bill Traylor, Thornton Dial, Ulysses Davis, Sam Doyle, William Hawkins, Mattie Lou O'Kelley, and Louis Monza. The collection of almost 800 objects also boasts superb examples by renowned artists from beyond the South, such as Henry Darger, Martín Ramírez, and Joseph Yoakum. 

      *This integrated lesson provides differentiated ideas and activities for educators that are aligned to a sampling of standards. Standards referenced at the time of publishing may differ based on each state’s adoption of new standards.

      Ideas contributed and updated by: Debi West and Katy Betts

      Revised and copyright:  May 2024 @ ArtsNOW

       

       
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      Link it Up Plane Figure Word Chains K-2

      Description

      Through composition of word chains describing plane figures, students will develop skills and understandings in mathematics and music. Teamwork and creativity are necessary to create an interesting word chant that demonstrates understanding and identification of plane figures. Musical skills addressed include improvising, composing, listening, speaking, playing instruments, and moving.

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      Living with Something Unusual

      Living With Something Unusual

      LIVING WITH SOMETHING UNUSUAL

      Learning Description

      Students will explore two stories about an unusual creature becoming part of a family, and then create and enact their own stories on the same theme.

       

      Learning Targets

      GRADE BAND: 2
      CONTENT FOCUS: THEATRE & ELA
      LESSON DOWNLOADS:

      Download PDF of this Lesson

      "I Can" Statements

      “I Can…”

      • I can identify similarities and differences in two stories on a similar theme.
      • I can use my body and voice to act out animal characters.
      • I can work with a group to create a new story based on a theme from picture books.

      Essential Questions

      • How do we compare two stories on a similar theme?
      • How do we create an original story based on a theme from picture books?

       

      Georgia Standards

      Curriculum Standards

      Grade 2:

      ELAGSE2RL6 Acknowledge differences in the points of view of characters, including by speaking in a different voice for each character when reading dialogue aloud.ELAGSE2RL7 Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot.ELAGSE2RL9 Compare and contrast two or more versions of the same story (e.g., Cinderella stories) by different authors or from different cultures.ELAGSE2W3 Write narratives in which they recount a well-elaborated event or short sequence of events, include details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide a sense of closure.

      Arts Standards

      Grade 2:

      TAES2.2 Developing scripts through improvisation and other theatrical methods.

      TAES2.3 Acting by developing, communicating, and sustaining roles within a variety of situations and environments.

       

      South Carolina Standards

      Curriculum Standards

      Grade 2:

      2.Rl.5 Determine meaning and develop logical interpretations by making predictions, inferring, drawing conclusions, analyzing, synthesizing, providing evidence, and investigating multipleinterpretations.

      2.RL.8 Analyze characters, settings, events, and ideas as they develop and interact within a particular context.

      Arts Standards

      Grade 2:

      Anchor Standard 1: I can create scenes and write scripts using story elements and structure.

      Anchor Standard 3: I can act in improvised scenes and written scripts.

       

      Key Vocabulary

      Content Vocabulary

      Character - A person or animal in a story who takes part in the action.

      Setting - The time and place of a story (when and where).

      Plot - The series of related events that together form a story.

      Illustration - A drawing, painting, photograph, or other image that is created to depict a story, poem, or newspaper article.

      Theme - A central idea or topic in a story.

      Arts Vocabulary

      Act - To pretend to be or do something imaginary.

      Voice - An actor’s tool, which we shape and change to portray the way a character speaks or sounds.

      Body - An actor’s tool, which we shape and change to portray the way a character looks, walks, or moves.

       

      Materials

      Aaaarrgghh Spider!!! by Lydia Monks. and How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night?, by Jane Yolen, illustrated by Mark Teague; or two texts that have the same theme of living with an unusual animal character

      Paper

      Pencil

       

      Instructional Design

      Opening/Activating Strategy

      Character Movements:
      Have students shift their bodies to become the animals in the stories: First, a spider . . . walking, climbing, dancing, spinning a web, jumping; then, dinosaurs . . . different types (from the text) walking, flying, running, eating, digging, settling down to sleep.

       

      Work Session

      Process

      • Read two quick texts for the students that share the theme of living with an unusual animal character, such as Aaaarrgghh, Spider!!!, and How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night?.
      • Discuss similarities and differences between the two texts. Identify the theme – living with an unusual animal.
      • Gather favorite scenes from the two stories and act them out all together, using the illustrations in the books as guides. Have students become the animals and/or the creatures (e.g., the spider washing herself, the mother shaking the spider webs out on the broom, the children swinging, the ankylosaurus yawning and dragging a blanket, the apatosaurus swinging his neck, the trachodont stomping and shouting). Spotlight the specific physical choices that individual students make to enact the characters.
      • Discuss the theme. Discuss what animals are kept as housepets, and brainstorm creatures that would be very unlikely to live with a family (possible ideas: elephant, whale, moose, wooly mammoth, vulture, unicorn, grizzly bear, walrus, etc.).
      • Divide the class into groups and instruct the students to come up with their own story based on an unusual animal living with humans, and how they overcome obstacles. Tell them that they should have the human characters in the family and one unusual animal house-pet character (if there is conflict, they can alternate acting out the different roles). They should decide on several activities that the family and animal engage in. (Possibly, assign the number of activities equal to the number of students in the group, so that each student has a chance to enact the animal role.)
      • Pair up groups and have them share with each other, or have each group share with the whole class.

       

      Closing Reflection

      • Review the theme of the stories, and what a ‘theme’ is.
      • Reflect on how students used their voices and bodies to become their characters.

       

      Assessments

      Formative

      • Observe students enacting animals in the opening activity and the group scenes.
      • Listen to students discussing similarities and differences between the two stories.

       

      Summative

      • Observe how well students’ scenes clearly follow the theme of the source texts – with an unusual animal pet and a series of actions or activities.
      • Observe how students work together to enact their scenes.

       

      Differentiation

      Acceleration:

      • Have students write out their scenes in a playwriting format.
      • Have the groups develop a narrative in which the characters face and resolve a specific problem related to the unusual animal.

      Remediation:

      • Rather than having students work independently in groups, brainstorm and collectively enact several ideas in sequence as an entire class.
      • Guide students specifically in making choices for vocal and physical expression in creating characters together (instruct and model what to do with arms, legs, upper body, faces, etc.)

       

      Additional Resources

      Other possible texts: Clifford the Big Red Dog, by Norman Ray Bridwell; Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, by Bernard Waber; Charlotte and the Rock, by Stephen W. Martin; Sparky, by Jenny Offill, Illustrated by Chris Appelhans (sloth); and My Tiny Pet, by Jessie Hartland (tardigrade/water bear).

      *This integrated lesson provides differentiated ideas and activities for educators that are aligned to a sampling of standards. Standards referenced at the time of publishing may differ based on each state’s adoption of new standards.

      Ideas contributed by: Carolynn Stoddard and updated by Barry Stewart Mann

      Revised and copyright: August 2022 @ ArtsNOW

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