MAGIC AQUARIUMS!

Grade 3
LESSON 1: Motivation & watercolor painting the background.
Concept: Artists create their own environments. VA SOLS for Visual Arts: Visual Communication and Production 3.9 - The student will identify & use foreground, middleground & background in 2D works of art. Cultural Reference: Powerpoint, Olga Cuttle, Students prior knowledge Defined Vocabulary/Concepts: Transparent - See through Affective Objective (Motivation): The student will look at the (under)watercolor artwork by Olga Cuttle and respond to images of a variety of unique aquariums. Cognitive/Creative Objective: The student will learn about different techniques that watercolor artists use and how watercolor is a transparent medium. Artistic Objective: The student will create a watercolor painting with cool colors using a variety of techniques. Instruction (45 minutes): Greet the students and introduce yourself. Tell them you are excited to be here as a student teacher and expect all the students to show what wonderful artists they are. Go over three class rules. Introduce art activity by showing the students a powerpoint including images from watercolor artist Olga Cuttle and images of unique aquariums. Ask the students if they know what the word transparent means and create a definition based on student responses. Explain that they will be creating magic aquariums and the first step will be to fill it with water. Talk about cool colors (use students wearing cool colors as examples) 10 minutes. Bring students to the tables and demonstrate how to use watercolor using the five

techniques (plastic, salt, sponges, liquid watercolors, alcohol and q-tips as well as pan watercolors) 8 minutes. These will be set up as stations. Respond to questions. Have students return to the rug and explain that you need to see at least three different techniques used and that you will be the salt fairy. Send quiet students to get their watercolor paper first (have two piles on the tables). Make sure the students write their names on the paper. Give students 20 minutes to work and move to different stations, leaving time for cleanup and closure. Demonstration: (8 minutes) Demonstrate how to use the watercolor. Make a pool of water the size of your hand and drop the colors in to play. Dont give the paintbrush a bad hairday, roll it in the pan/wipe it on the side of the liquid watercolor container. Make sure the paper is wet and your brush is wet, its an aquarium so use lots of water! If the water gets dirty, dump it out and get fresh water. Demonstrate how the alcohol drops look. Demonstrate how to put the crinkled plastic on the wet colors. Demonstrate how the sponges work (paint the sponge and stamp it on the paper). Demonstrate how the magical salt works (its a saltwater aquarium after all!). Emphasize that the watercolors need water to work, to try blending and bleeding the colors (no white paper!) and that when they use a technique that section is done, move on to the next section. Check for Understanding (Essential Questions): What do watercolors need to work? How many techniques should you try? When you use a technique can you paint back over it? How can you make the watercolor really colorful? How can you make it more pale and transparent? What should you do if the water gets muddy? Artistic Activity (Time Frame): This unit will take 3 45-minute long classes. List of Materials: watercolor palettes, cool liquid watercolor paints, rubbing alcohol, q-tips, medium sized (10) round brushes, water containers, salt, plastic bags cut up, 11x14 watercolor paper, sponge stampers, pencils. Closure: What else do you think you can put in your magical aquarium? Can you name three things that are transparent? What made the watercolors more transparent? Backup Plan: Save your demos for students that may be absent and dont have watercolor paper. If student demonstrates motor control issues/is LD, help one on one, give larger brushes, and encourage the student to paint the whole page. You may need to give them some tempera and let them blend the paint on their paper using water. Checklist of required elements in project: Cool colors are used from purple - blue - green At least two techniques used (ie: plastic and alcohol) Variety of transparency No large white areas Paper is not pilled from excess rubbing

MAGIC AQUARIUMS! Grade 3

LESSON 2: Textured construction paper pop-ups.

Concept: Artists use a background, a middleground, and a foreground. Cultural Reference: Matisse paper cutouts, posters of marine life, powerpoint. Defined Vocabulary: Background, Middleground, Foreground Affective Objective (Motivation): The student will view and respond to posters of marine life and images of paper cutouts by Matisse. Cognitive/Creative Objective: The student will identify the background, middleground, and foreground of posters and teacher demo artwork. Artistic Objective: The student will create textured paper cut outs similar to Matisse, glue them onto their paper for the foreground and create at least one pop out. Instruction: Greet the students, review what they did and learned in the previous lesson. Show students the posters of marine life and ask if anyone can identify the background, middleground, and foreground are. Explain in greater detail what that means. Use the room to illustrate it as well (the back wall of the room, the tables in the middle, the students in the front on the rug). Ask students to identify the foreground on the posters and say what objects are in it (plants, coral, rocks, sand). Show students images of Matisses paper cutouts. Explain that students should pick paper colors that contrasts with their cool background. Demonstrate how to texture the paper and cut it. Demonstrate how to glue the popup. Explain that students need 4 or more interesting textured paper cutouts of seaweed, coral, sand, rocks, etc. Explain that in the next class the students will make their silver sea creatures. Release students to begin their cutouts and gluing. Dont hand the cardboard pancakes out until they have glued at least three interesting things on their paper. Leave time to clean up (designate scrap, texture plate, and crayon collectors) and for closure. Demonstration: Demonstrate how to texture the paper using different color rubbing crayons and warm colored paper. Demonstrate how to create the sand, a piece of fan coral, and wavy kelp (cutting and tearing). Show students how they can save their scraps and layer them in the picture. Show students how to make negative spaces between their shapes to let the background show through. Demonstrate how to glue the pop up (cardboard pancake stack).

Check for Understanding: How many textured paper cutouts should you use? What colors should you use that will stand out against your background? Artistic Activity (Time Frame): This activity will take 45 minutes. List of Materials: Construction paper scraps (warm colors), texture plates, rubbing crayons, small cardboard squares for pop-ups, glue, extra watercolor paintings from previous demos. Closure: What part of your picture did you work on today? Put your thinking caps on and think about what magical sea creatures you might want to put in the aquarium next week! Can your sea creatures swim through the seaweed and hide in the coral? What part of your picture will your sea creatures live in? What is that called? (middleground!). Backup Plan: Have watercolor paintings from previous demos ready for students that were absent. Have some textured paper already ready. Have paper cut out shapes ready as well for students that have motor control issues or are LD. Encourage students to share their scraps. Assessment Checklist: Do students have 4 or more interesting textured cutouts? Did students glue a popup? Did students create a foreground from their paper cutouts? Did students cover up existing white? Did students use good craftsmanship?

MAGIC AQUARIUMS! Grade 3

LESSON 3: Aquatic repouss and final touches.

Concept: Small details can really shine. National Content Standards & VA SOLS for Visual Arts: (See unit overview) Cultural Reference: Repousee artists, Youtube video on Repousee. Defined Vocabulary: Repouse - textured designs/drawings pressed into metal. Concave - Pressed in (suck in your cheeks) Convex - Popping out (puff out your cheeks)

Affective Objective (Motivation): The student will learn about how cultures used metal to create art with repousee techniques for both beauty and communication purposes. Cognitive/Creative Objective: The student will identify foreground, middleground and background in images. Artistic Objective: The student will embellish their magic aquarium with repousee created sea creatures that live in the middleground. Instruction: Greet students, go over foreground, middleground and background. Discuss middleground in relation to the work they have created so far. EQ - What part if your art is the background? What part is the foreground? Discuss repousee and show examples and short video. EQ - What is the artist doing to create the effect? Have students suck in their stomachs to demo concave and pop them out to demonstrate convex. Demo how to create texture on the metallic vent tape and send students to work creating their sea creatures, they must have at least three EQ - What size should the sea creatures be in the foreground? Middleground? Background? (larger to smaller!) What kind of creatures can you make? (brainstorm list, write it on the board) Send students to work. Stop students when they have made three creatures and Demo how they can use colors on the metal. EQ - What colors will stand out the best against your background? Show how to cut the shapes out carefully and peel the tape off. Show how to

place the sea creatures in a pleasing composition where the largest is in the foreground (overlapped in the seaweed) and the smallest is in the background. If there is extra time, have students embellish their foreground with oil pastels and perhaps add bubbles in the background. Demonstration: Use tooling tools to show students concave and convex patterns. Stress using simple shapes to ease cutting out. Show students how to use only 3 colors and that they should be complementary. Show students how to carefully cut out the shapes and place them on the paper in order of size. Check for Understanding: (see Essential Questions - EQs) How many creatures should you have? How many colors should you use? Artistic Activity (Time Frame): 45 minutes List of Materials: Metallic duct tape, colored sharpies, repousee tools youtube video, scissors, oil pastels. Closure: Can someone tell me where they have seen repousee used? Can someone tell me what concave/convex means? What finishing touches might you want to add to your piece if you had one more class? Backup Plan: Have demo pieces ready for students that are new. Accommodate for students that need limitations (only one sea creature).

ASSESSMENT RUBRIC:

IMAGES TO SUPPORT LESSON 1:

IMAGES TO SUPPORT LESSON 2:

IMAGES TO SUPPORT LESSON 3: