Mr & Mrs Rubbing

elementary: 28 grade 2 students between 6 and 8 years old | Willingdon elementary (Montreal) | September to December 2009

LESSON PLAN

Duration: 40 minutes

Title: Mr. and Mrs. Rubbing

Rationale: texture is an element of art, and thus should not be overlooked- there is texture everywhere whether it is prominent of a seemingly smooth surface. This lesson serves to give a tactile aspect to “drawing” textures so as to give the students opportunity to transfer their knowledge of the world around them onto an art work by making rubbings.

Broad Areas of Learning: environmental awareness and consumer rights and responsibilities. Focus of Development: Awareness of the environment.

Cross-Curricular Competencies: constructs his/her identity (by being open to surroundings), communicates appropriately (by carrying out communication; proving an understanding of the concept by answering the question during the response)

Visual Arts Competencies: Creates personal images (by creating Mr. and Mrs. Rubbing out of rubbings) and appreciates works of art and cultural objects from the world’s artistic heritage, personal images, and media images (by sharing appreciation of the experience during the response period)

Learning Objectives:

Students will:

·         Become aware of the presence of texture in surroundings by reproducing the textures in their surroundings using the proper rubbing technique

·         Be able to describe orally the different textures of different objects by using words such as soft, hard, smooth, bumpy.

Art Form: drawing

Technique: rubbing

Materials, Tools, Equipment:

• paper
• wax crayons
• various objects with varying textures (ex: feathers, doilies, plastic netting, coins, corrugated cardboard, etc.) small enough to fit into the box. (enough to have some for at least half the class)
• small pieces of paper (enough to have some for at least half the class)

***NOTE*** within the objects chosen, some must have smooth textures and some must have rough textures so as to better be able to compare the two during the response phase

• a pen
• a box to put the various objects and small pieces of paper in

Vocabulary: texture, rubbing, smooth, bumpy, soft, hard

Artistic and/or Cultural References: none required, but a real painting may be brought in for the students to touch and feel the texture of the paint at the end of the response period to reinforce the link to art

LESSON PHASES

Preparation: Test the objects to know which ones make successful rubbings, then put all the objects in the box. Write down objects or specific surfaces in the classroom on the pieces of paper and put those pieces inside the box as well. For example, on a piece of paper, it could be written “underneath your shoe”, “on the seat of your chair” or even “on the wooden surface of the teacher’s desk”. Make sure you test them as well. It should not be difficult for the students to access this object nor to make a rubbing of it.

Motivation: Time allotted: 15 minutes

Procedure: If possible, link current lesson with previous one. Ask students what ‘touch’ is, start a discussion about how things feel and how to describe them. Make sure to emphasize the words texture, rough and smooth as this is an important aspect of the response. Next, ask them how one could transcribe texture that they feel onto a piece of paper, and introduce the technique of rubbing. Explain how it is done by demonstrating: pick out an example from your box using one of the papers you prepared earlier and an object. Place the object under the sheet of paper and tell them to use the side of the crayon as it distributes the pressure evenly on the object and the rubbings come out clearer. Show them to color in only the space that they want to.

***NOTE***One of the difficulties they will have is to put the object at the right place underneath their drawing. Show them how to use their hand as guide.

Development: Time allotted: 20 minutes

            Procedure: The students must draw Mr. and Mrs. Rubbing using only lines and making sure that the spaces are large enough to fill using rubbings (encourage the use of all the space on their papers). The teacher then passes out one object or piece of paper at random to each student. Depending on the comfort of the teacher, the students can either have a set amount of time with each object or paper before the teacher picks them back up and hands out a different one, or the teacher can let the students come up to the box and pick a new object or piece of paper each time they are finished with a previous one.

***NOTE***direct sharing of objects and papers is not encouraged because the students must each have an original final piece. The distribution of papers and objects must be done at random.

Response: Time allotted: 5 minutes

         Procedure: Here are some guiding questions to lead the response time: Did you have fun? What was fun about it? Did you think it was difficult and why? Some objects must have been easier to make rubbings of than others; some textures show up on paper more than others, why is that? Some objects are smooth, some are rough. Which ones made the most visible marks? The teacher then chooses two objects from the box and walk around the class to each student, asking them which one they think has the most texture and why. Let them touch and feel the objects to compare.

Clean-up: Time allotted: 5 minutes

         Procedure: Gather all papers and put away all crayons. Make sure all objects and papers are back in the box.

***NOTE***should be done before the response to limit distractions.

Evaluation Rubric

Title: Mr. and Mrs. Rubbing

Name of student:

Objectives:	Check whichever applies
The student has proved awareness of texture in his/ her environment by inserting them in the form of rubbings in his/her artwork	“        Not at all “        A little bit “        Yes “        Has exceeded expectations
The student has used the rubbing technique effectively and obviously in his/her artwork (an effect of texture is visible, the student has manipulated the crayon properly)	“        Not at all “        A little bit “        Yes “        Has exceeded expectations
The student has proven his/her understanding of the concept of texture by being able to differentiate between the rough and smooth texture shown during the response	“        Not at all “        A little bit “        Yes “        Has exceeded expectations
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