Students will be able to:
- create relief prints with leaves;
- work independently and self-regulate;
- create personal responses to the centre materials;
- share their ideas with peers;
- demonstrate a sense of accomplishment.
EXPLORING LEAVES – Printmaking, Line, Texture, Shape
Steps
Step One
- Use the magnifying glass to look closely at all the different leaves.
- Be a leaf detective!
- How many different leaves do you see?
- How are they the same?
- How are they different?
- How do they feel?
- How many veins can you feel?
- What patterns do you see?
- If we paint the leaves to make a print, what part of the leaf do you think will print the best? Why?
Step Two
- Choose a leaf.
- Place it on a piece of newspaper.
- Brush paint over the whole leaf with a colour you like.
- Place the leaf, paint side down, on top of a piece of construction paper.
- Gently rub the back of the leaf to transfer the paint to the paper.
- Carefully lift the leaf off the paper.
- Repeat this process with different leaves and different colours.
Step Three
- Look at your print from a distance.
- What do you see when you look at your print?
- What shapes do you see?
- What textures do you see?
- What parts stand out the most? Why?
- Who would love this print? Why?
Learning Goals
Extensions
Have students:
- go on a nature walk in the fall;
- make a tree friend they are going to observe throughout the school year;
- make visits to their trees during seasonal changes and note the changes their trees are going through;
- visit the trees at the beginning, middle and end of a season to note those changes as well;
- keep a little journal about their trees;
- share their work with others.
Prepare
- Prior to this lesson take your class on a nature walk and collect lots of different leaves. Pass the leaves around and ask students:
- What tree do you think this leaf fell from? Why?
- How are both sides of the leaf the same?
- How are they different?
- Does the leaf have a pattern? What is it? - Gather, and make available, books about leaves, for example, Fall Leaves Fall, by Zoe Hall; Why Do Leaves Change Colour? by Betsy Maestro; Fall Leaves: Color and Crunchy, by Martha E. H. Rustad; Leaf Man, by Lois Ehlert; Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf, by Lois Ehlert; and We're Going on a Leaf Hunt, by Steve Metzger.
- Set up a printmaking centre with leaves, paintbrushes, construction paper, and washable paint.
Introduction
- Conduct a read-aloud with a book such as We're Going on a Leaf Hunt, by Steve Metzger.
- Discuss and review the variety of leaves found on your walk.
- Introduce the leaf printmaking centre.
- Introduce the challenge.
Activities
The Challenge
- Use your own ideas to make prints with leaves.
- Share your ideas with others.
- Demonstrate technical accomplishment and creativity.
The Process
- Ensure that students understand the challenge.
- Establish success criteria with your students, for example,
I know I am successful when I:
- use my own ideas to make my prints
- use different leaves to make my prints
- use different colours to make my prints
- look closely at real leaves
- explain how I made my prints - Demonstrate how to make a print.
- Guide students through the steps outlined in the lesson plan.
- Encourage students to look for lines and patterns created by the leaves.
- Observe students as they work.
- Provide individual assistance and encouragement.
Sharing
- Gather students to share and discuss their art. Ask students to share:
- What they learned about looking closely at leaves.
- How they made their prints
- What they learned about leaves.
- What they learned about making prints.
- What they like best about their pictures. - Display all the prints in the classroom.
- Encourage students to view the prints and notice how they are the same, and how they are different.
Assessment
- Observe students as they work – thoughtful focus, discriminating, seeking more information, elaborating, experimenting.
- Observe students as they discuss their prints – speaks with a clear voice, looks at audience while speaking, points to areas in the print, provides accurate information, answers questions from the audience effectively.
- Observe students as they listen – looks at presenter, asks effective questions, supports ideas with evidence found in the artwork.
- Use a checklist to track progress. (Download - Leaves_tracking.pdf)
- Have grade 1 students use the self-assessment form to evaluate their work. (Download - Leaves_self-assessment.pdf)
