Unit Plan

Course Name

Title: Art & the Environment

Grade Level

Environmental Art for Polaris

Standards
1. Observe and Learn to Comprehend

2. Envision and Critique to Reflect

3. Invent and Discover to Create

4. Relate and Connect to Transfer

Length: 10 Weeks
4-5

Grade Level Expectations

1. Artists and viewers determine artistic intent by comparing and contrasting the characteristics and expressive features
of art and design
I can figure out why an artist makes art.
2. Visual arts communicate the human experience
I can see people's stories in the artwork they make
3. Visual arts learning involves analyzing the formal and sensory qualities of art
I can see the art features and use my hearing, sight, touch, taste, and sight to understand art
1. The critique process informs judgments about artistic and aesthetic merits in works of art
I can talk about art with other people about the art they make to figure out what is good art
2. Specific methods of planning support the development of intended meaning
I can plan my art and it helps me make my art and helps other people understand what it means when I make it
1. Use media to express and communicate ideas about an issue of personal interest
I can make art about things I like
2. Materials and processes can be used in traditional, unique, and inventive ways
I can make things in old, new, and special ways
1. Artists, viewers, and patrons assign intended meaning to works of art
I can look at art and know what it means
2. Historical time periods and cultural settings are interpreted in works of art
I can look at art and know things about history and other cultures

Colorado 21st Century Skills

Creative Process in Visual Art

Critical Thinking and Reasoning: Think Deep, Think Different

Information Literacy: Untangling the Web
Collaboration: Working Together, Learning Together
Self-Direction: Owning Your Learning
Invention: Creating Solutions

Lesson Titles and Description

Introductory Lesson

Studio Thinking
Develop Craft: Learning to use materials, tools and techniques
Engage and Persist: Learning to embrace problems and not give up
Envision: Imagine the possible next steps; see what is not there
Express: Convey an idea, feeling, personal meaning
Observe: Seeing things that otherwise might not be seen
Reflect: think, talk and evaluate your work and the work of others
Stretch and Explore: Reach beyond ones perceived capacities
Understand Art World: Learn about contemporary and past art(ist)

Lesson Length
1 Day

Sequence
1

Students are introduced to sketchbooks and teachers pre-assess students. Students

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use Earth Materials at Stations to decorate the fronts of sketchbooks, teachers will
seal the sketchbooks with modge podge.
Environmental Relationships

2 weeks

In this lesson students will explore their environment by clearly observing and
recording their surroundings using available personal technology (digital cameras)
and drawing materials to create images for the purpose of developing a relationship
with their environment. Students will start in the classroom learning about
composition, operating a digital camera, and how to create a contour drawing.
Students will investigate the relationship between human-made and natural
environments when the class goes outside to photograph and draw. To explore
human made objects, students will photograph and draw the Polaris playground and
the second week students will explore nature by photographing and drawing
surrounding nature areas of Polaris. After observing, the class will reflect on their
connections to human-made and natural environments.

Planning- While indoors, students will use their viewfinders to practice looking at
objects around the room with vertical and horizontal composition. Students will use
photographs as a way of generating compositions and chose the best composition
from their photographs to create an observational contour drawing.
Materials,techniques, tools- Students will use digital cameras, viewfinders, paper,
and drawing supplies. They will explore different composition in photography and
observational contour drawing.
Art expressive features/characteristics- Composition will be explored as an artist's
choice to reflect their desired meaning and presentation.
Art community and culture- This lesson was inspired by the art practice of contour
drawing and artists Erikas Osborne and Joseph Yoakum. Students will have the
experience of sharing their artwork with peer artists, communicating with peer
artists while making and learned from each others discoveries. This will draw upon
the culture of collaborating artists in the art community.
Reflective activity- Students will look at peer photos on our classroom blog. The
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students will choose from the photograph galleries which pictures they were drawn
to and talk about what they saw in the photograph that make it dynamic and what the
photographer may have considered while taking the photograph.
7 weeks

Bringing in the Outdoors Inside

In this class, students will be presented with a story that humans must spend one
year indoors to let the Earth heal from harm. In the first weeks, students will design
a dream bedroom for the indoor year by choosing the most important outdoor
elements to bring inside with them. Using their ideas, students will create sketches
of their bedrooms integrating nature elements. These sketches will be transformed
into paintings using color mixing. In reflection, students will explain to their peers
why their outdoor elements are important to them and in groups of three they created
a drawing of their classroom for the indoor year.
Planning- Students will start by wearing element hats that represented earth with the
color green, fire with the color red, water with the color blue, and air with the color
white. While wearing the hats, student will generate lists of nature associations from
each element. Choosing the most important aspects of nature to bring inside with
them, students will create sketches that will be transformed into paintings.
Materials,techniques, tools- Preliminary bedroom sketches will be drawn with
pencil and pastel and students will use acrylic paint for their final paintings. When
painting, students will learn color mixing techniques, how to layer paint, how to add
detail to their paintings.
Art expressive features/characteristics- When designing their dream bedroom,
students will consider scale, birds eye view perspective, and choice of color.
Art community and culture- During reflection, the class will look at artwork by
Vincent Van Gogh and Glinis Tinglof.
Reflective activity- Referring to their completed bedroom paintings, students will
explain their personal relationship to nature through their artistic choices to a group
of peers. After listening to others, in their groups students will consider their class
relationship to the outdoors and collaborated on a drawing that designed Alicias
classroom into what it would look like when the outdoors came outside.
Unit: Focusing Lens/Lenses:
Timeless, Transferrable and
Universal (I.E. Beliefs/Values,

Relationships

Unit: Prepared
Graduate
Competencies

Comprehend: Recognize, articulate, and debate that the visual arts are a means
for expression

Identity, Relationships.
Tension/Conflict, Freedom, Design,
Aesthetic, Patterns, Origins,
Transformation, Change, Influence,
Collaboration, Intention,
Play/Exploration, Synergy/Flow,
Choices, Balance, Inspiration,
System, Structure/Function, Reform)

Unit: Standards
and Grade Level
Expectations
(Unit must have all
standards; NOT all
GLEs.)

Reflect: Recognize, interpret, and validate that the creative process builds on
the development of ideas through a process of inquiry, discovery, and research
Create: Create works of art that articulate more sophisticated ideas, feelings,
emotions, and points of view about art and design through an expanded use of
media and technologies
Transfer: Use specific criteria to discuss and evaluate works of art

(Visual Arts Standard # - Name; GLE #, # and #)

1. Observe and Learn to Comprehend

Artists and viewers determine artistic intent by comparing and contrasting the characteristics and expressive features of art and design
Visual arts communicate the human experience
Visual arts learning involves analyzing the formal and sensory qualities of art
2. Envision and Critique to Reflect
The critique process informs judgments about artistic and aesthetic merits in works of art
Specific methods of planning support the development of intended meaning
3. Invent and Discover to Create
Use media to express and communicate ideas about an issue of personal interest
Materials and processes can be used in traditional, unique, and inventive ways
4. Relate and Connect to Transfer
Artists, viewers, and patrons assign intended meaning to works of art
Historical time periods and cultural settings are interpreted in works of art

Unit: Inquiry
Questions

(3-5 questions; at least 2 from each lesson)

(Engaging-Debatable:
In art, what does it
mean when something is
beautiful? How can
something be so ugly it
is beautiful?)

What inspires artists?

Why would an artist use earth materials?
Is there a relationship between art and the environment? Why?
How do artists connect to their environment?
Whats the difference between making art inside and outside?
How could art change an existing environmental condition?

Unit Strands

Comprehend/Reflect/Create/Transfer

Unit: Concepts:
Timeless,
Transferrable and

Environment
Inspiration
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Universal (I.E.
Composition, Patterns,
Technique, Rhythm,
Paradox, Influence,
Style, Force, Culture,
Space/Time/Energy,
Line, Law/Rules, Value,
Expressions, Emotions,
Tradition, Symbol,
Movement, Shape,
Improvisation,
Observation)

Observing and Recording

Relationship
Meaning
Communication

For each statement you create below align with Standard(s), Prepared Graduate Competencies, and Grade Level Expectations. Refer to Standards: Inquiry Questions, Relevance and
Application and Nature of Statement when writing understandings.

Enduring Understandings: My students will UNDERSTAND...

(Timeless, Transferrable and Universal. Shows a relationship between two
or more concepts.)

Conceptual Guiding Questions

Factual Guiding Questions

Artists observe and record their environment which inspires art.

What inspires artists?

How are photographs different than
drawings?
Why would an artist use earth materials?
What is the environment?
How does where an artist live impact
their art?
If the environment could speak, what
would it tell us?
How can art influence the structures we
live in?
How does the environment depend on
artists?
How do artists depend on the
environment?
How does an artist communicate their
intended meaning?
How does the subject matter an artist is

What are expressive features in the

environment?
What do artists record?
How do artists observe?

Artists develop personal relationships to their environment.

Artists use materials and techniques to communicate intended

meaning.

What is a blueprint?
How do architects design living
spaces?
What should be considered when
designing an interior?

What colors make you feel what

emotions?
How can an artist use detail to convey
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depicting influence the materials and

techniques they choose?
Does the viewer need to know the
artists intended meaning?

an intended texture?

Critical Content: My students will KNOW...

(NOT Timeless, Transferrable and Universal. Factual information in the unit
[topics] that students must know.)

Key Skills: What my students will be able to DO...

(Timeless, Transferrable and Universal. What students will do AND be able to
transfer to new learning experiences as a result of learning the unit.)

Take a photograph
Use a sketchbook
Use drawing materials
Design an interior space
Collaborate with peers
Mix colors, tints, and shades

Observe
Record
Envision
Analyze
Collaborate
Plan

Vocabulary

Environment, Indoor, Outdoor, Sustainability, Collaboration

Literacy Integration

Environmental adjectives, synthesis and interpretation of project information into art creation, reading a Blueprint

Numeracy Integration

Multiplicity and calculation of materials (working with large numbers of materials and calculating how much will be
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needed to execute the project), Planning for volume of a space