I am Gina from Beach Sand & Lesson Plans and I am SO very honored to be a guest blogger today for Jenny K.! My students have loved creating with her pop art for the past 2 years and Jenny has rekindled my love of using art in the classroom. Thanks, Jenny!!
Using art to enhance my lessons has always been something I felt was important for my students. I feel that our students need time to stretch their creative muscles and use their imaginations often. When students participate in art activities it improves their fine motor skills, enhances language development, strengthens problem-solving and critical thinking skills, improves decision making and visual learning, allows students to be inventive, and increases academic achievement. It’s also FUN!
I was able to bring art into one of my current science units. My students had a chance to put their creative thinking to work as a culminating part of our study of plants. After studying plants through our textbook, I created a graphic organizer for plants that not only required a recall of the information they had learned but also required us to take a walk outside and observe nature.
On the organizer, students are asked to observe the details of 2 plants around the school, so we headed outside to our butterfly garden to get closer to nature. I was truly impressed with how focused they were during this activity. The kids really spent time looking at the details, something I don’t think they do often enough.
To further our culminating activity, we took a look at the artwork of Andy Goldsworthy. He uses items found in nature to create art. We then took a little field trip to a neighborhood park.
Students gathered leaves, twigs, moss, flowers…anything in nature that inspired them.
Look at these works of NATURE ART!
After hanging up for a while, the leaves turned from bright green to brown. We learned that nature art does not last forever!
Prior to these culminating activities, students were involved in a creative writing project. As we studied plants and their parts, students observed a lima bean seed. They placed their bean in a clear Ziploc bag on a wet paper towel. We hung the bags in a window. Each day for about 8 days they observed their seed. They recorded their observations in a diary format. They had to write from the perspective of the seed. I asked them to think about what the seed might be thinking and feeling as it grew. Again…creative muscles at work!
Grab your freebie of Memoirs of a Seed HERE.
Remember to integrate some art time into your lessons. Allow students time to create, draw, color, build, sing, act, and even dance! Have fun!!
