Each lesson will either compare differences or examine changes in nature from the beginning to the mature stages. Students get experience with several visual arts media as they learn to be close observers of nature and record their observations through drawing, painting, or making puppets. Lessons alternate between using art to record scientific observation and responding to nature creatively through the visual arts.

GLO #4 Quality Producer
Assessment Art – Observing children mixing primary colors to make secondary and use of elements taught. Questioning about the difference between 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional art.Science – Questioning about the meaning of metamorphosis, being able to give examples; ability to give examples of things that change in natureGLO – see checklist :

A discussion of the seasons will be introduced with a series of Chinese season paintings. For this lesson, groups of students will make a 4-panel drawing, with each student showing a plant as it looks in one season. They will then paint the drawings with watercolor.

With examples of egg, caterpillar, and pupa the students will draw and color their own butterfly metamorphosis. They will create an accordion book showing all the changes that the butterfly makes. The students will be using pencils, pens, and crayons. On one side of the book will be a long caterpillar, on the other, metamorphosis of a butterfly.

The discussion will include the symmetry seen in butterfly wings, warm and cool colors, contrast, and mixing primary colors to create secondary colors. Using Hawaiian butterflies as examples of symmetry and color, students will create their own interpretation of a butterfly. For this lesson, the students will paint half of a butterfly on a paper on which the body has already been drawn for them. They will paint with tempera and then fold the painting in half and rub it to create the symmetrical wings of the butterfly.

The students will be shown samples of the changes a sunflower makes from seed to full bloom. We will make a four-fold book showing the growth of the sunflower. The students will be using pencils, pens, and crayons.

Using Van Gogh’s Sunflowers we will discuss radial symmetry, warm and cool colors, and, again, mixing of primary colors to create secondary colors. The students will then paint large sunflowers with tempera paint.

The students will look at photo examples of frog eggs, tad poles, tadpoles with hind legs, tadpoles with front legs, and an adult frog. The students will create a painting showing all stages in a pond together, growing and changing.

In this lesson we discuss the symmetry of a frog and mix colors to achieve various greens. We will make a frog puppet, using heavy paper and paint, mounted on a straw. We will have lots of hopping frogs in class! Discussion will include the concept of two-dimensional and three-dimensional art.

For this lesson we will be viewing the art of Maria Merian. The students will discuss the changes that they see in her drawings from eggs to mature butterflies, from seeds to mature plants. I will bring in pictures of coffee from flower to red cherry. The students will draw a coffee branch with flowers, young seeds, and mature red seeds. They will use pencil and watercolor. We will visit the following website-- http://www.morning-earth.org/ARTISTNATURALISTS/AN_Merian.html