BOOK EXTENSION ACTIVITY - LESSON PLAN

Your Name: Lizeth Reyes Genre of the Book: Biography

Book Title: The Secret World of Walter Anderson

Author: Hester Bass

Publisher: Candlewick, 2009 Date: April 26, 2020

nd
Pre-K/ CCSD K-2 Grade Core Standards:
 Visual Arts: Grade 2: VA: Cr1.2.2 Make art or design with various materials and tools
to explore personal interests, questions, and curiosity.

 Writing Standards K–5: Grade 2 students: 1. Write opinion pieces in which they
introduce the topic or book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply reasons that
support the opinion, use linking words (e.g., because, and, also) to connect opinion and
reasons, and provide a concluding statement or section

 Speaking and Listening Standards K–5: Grade 2 students: 4. Tell a story or recount
an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking audibly in
coherent sentences.

2. Objectives:
SWBAT – Children will paint an artwork that can contribute to Walter Anderson’s room. They
will understand why the painter decided to keep this a secret and realize that secrets are
sometimes cannot be a secret forever.

3. Materials/Equipment:
 Outside in the grass
 A paper yellow hat for each student
 Paint brushes
 Canvas for each child
 Paints
 Paint palettes
 Paper
 Pencils

4. Teaching:
A. Reading the book
B. Extension activity:
After reading the biography of Walter Anderson, I will ask them the main question: Should his
secret room and private island be a secret? We will discus the many reasons why it should, or it
should not. I will pass out the paper yellow hats to feel inspired how the painter did. We will
become painters like him, and paint outside to feel the air and nature. Once we are sitting on the
grass painting on our own canvas, we will look over the reasons why he kept it a secret. Some
children will be able to sit next to a tree, just how the painter was with his yellow hat. While our
paintings are drying, we can talk about Anderson’s paintings and how he was able to keep them
a secret for so long. I will discuss that secrets can be a good thing, but also a bad thing. I will
give an example of both. Once we go inside the classroom, the students will have their paintings
with them and write their answer on a piece of paper. They will write and defend their argument
if Walter Anderson did a good thing to keep his room of masterpiece a secret. They will also
write how the ending could change if the room was not a secret.

5. Closure:
To wrap up the activity, I will encourage some students to show their art piece and to talk about
their writing to the classroom. I would give them my own opinion if the painter did the right
thing to keep his room a secret. I will ask them if it is okay if I had a secret from them, for
example, give them a pop quiz on Friday. They will realize that sometimes it is not okay to have
secrets hidden from the people that you love and trust. The students and I will also talk about his
wife, and how she was surprised to see the room for the first time. She may have been happy to
see it, but all those years, it was a hidden secret from her. This room was a good secret, but a sad
one. The students will now understand that there are different kind of secrets.