Name: Nichole Ewert       

Date:  April 8th 2013

Lesson Name: "oh say, what can you SEA?"

Grades: K-6

Enduring Understanding:

There are a few pivotal elements of this lesson that I hope for my students to take home with them. First of all I believe that the first step on the path to preserving our oceans is to love and understand them. This also links my project to what the children could be learning in their natural sciences classes. I also want the students to make their fish sculptures representative of what is important to them in their lives here in Arizona. Once the final mobile is constructed we will go over the expression "there are many fish in the sea" and how it relates to living a healthy, balanced life.

Essential Questions:
I really want the children to question why they should care about something that seem so unrelated to their everyday life. I want the students to understand that it is possible to love and respect something that is not yours or physically in front of you.

Class: The classroom would have the same dimensions as our classroom, but would have 32 children. The desks would be arranged into eight pods of four desks. The population of the classroom is largely Caucasian with three African American students and one Native American Student. This classroom has no physically limited students, with the exception of four eyeglass wearers. For the course of this lesson I think the classroom will provide a suitable environment and special cultural and physical considerations need not be made.

Accommodations: When teaching this lesson with younger grades I would not use a hot glue gun. I would simply have them use school paste. Also I would monitor my classrooms scissor abilities and possibly have pre-cut fins for them to apply themselves. I would also cover all of the tables with a plastic sheet that we would use for all of our painting activities, so as to keep their school desks clean.

Address Students: I will refer to the students as 'students', 'crafters', 'friends', and 'kids'.

Planning: If the science teachers were not covering any oceanographic subjects I would assign them all to bring in one article about ocean conservation efforts or effects. This would give them a background as to why the oceans need to be rescued from human waste and encourage them to use as many recycled components in their final project as possible.

Expectations: I expect they will learn a lot about oceanic conservation, 3-Dimensional construction, and combining diverse ideas to create a unified piece.

Assessment: To assess the students I would look more to effort and commitment than to actual quality of work. In the planning phase I would look for students who specifically found pertinent articles, read them, and applied them to their design. During the construction phase I would look for kids who held true to the spirit of conservationism, and did not simply make the fish they thought would look best. And overall I would look for a balance of technical appreciation and reverence for the marine animal the student was emulating through their piece.

Lesson:

            Step-By-Step:

·         Gather materials

·         

·         Remove wrappers from plastic bottles:

·         Base paint bottle with white acrylic paint

·         Let bottles dry

·         Once bottles are dry you may pain over (with acrylic) in any color you want.

·         

·         Let every coat dry between painting

·         

·         Once bottles are all painted, use hot glue gun to attach googly eyes

·         

·         Cut out fins and attach with hot glue

·         

·         Draw on fish with sharpies to individualize (with windows open)

·         

·         Hot Glue ribbons to the top of the fish, but not the fins

·         Secure ribbons to drift wood in varied lengths

·         Try to put in slightly windy area so fish will 'swim' with one another on your new mobile

Standards:

            

 ART STANDARDS:

·         Make and explain revisions in his or her own artwork

·         Select and use subject matter and/or symbols in his or her own artwork.

CORE STANDARDS:

·         Observe, ask questions, make predictions

·         Communicate results of investigations

Art Vocabulary:

·         Balance- When constructing the mobile we do not want all of the strings to be the same length. Placing fish on multiple levels allows for balance of composition.

·         Color- We will also be making colorful fish. Understanding which colors work together or contrast in our favor will allow us more communication through our construction.

·         Shape- We will be crafting 3-Dimensional sculptures. We will be adding fins and eyes to these fish making them more life-like and have to understand how these additions will affect the overall shape of the piece.