Lesson Plan for Implementing

NETS•S—Template I
(More Directed Learning Activities)
Template with guiding questions
Teacher(s)
Name Kristyn Lopez

Position Art Teacher

School/District Henderson Mill Elementary/ DeKalb County Schools

E-mail Klopez1187@gmail.com

Phone

Grade Level(s) 1st Grade

Content Area Art/ STEAM

Time line Feb 8th – April 5th

Art: VA3.CR.1 Engage in the creative process to generate and visualize ideas by using subject matter and
symbols to communicate meaning. a. Utilize multiple approaches to plan works of art incorporating
imaginative ideas, universal themes, and symbolic images. b. Apply available resources, tools, and
technologies to investigate personal ideas through the process of making works of art. c. Produce
multiple prototypes in the planning stages for a work of art (e.g. sketches, 3D models).

VA3.CR.3 Understand and apply media, techniques, processes, and concepts of two-dimensional art. c.
Combine materials in creative ways to make works of art (e.g. mixed-media, collage).

VA3.CN.2 Integrate information from other disciplines to enhance the understanding and production of
works of art. a. Apply art skills and knowledge to improve understanding in other disciplines.

VA1.CR.2 Create works of art emphasizing one or more elements of art and/or principles of design

Science: S1L1 Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about the basic needs of plants and
animals. B. Ask questions to compare and contrast the basic needs of plants (air, water, light, and
nutrients) and animals (air, water, food, and shelter). 

Writing: ELAGSE1W2: Write informative/ explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some
facts about the topic, and provide some sense of closure.

Standards:

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 Content Standards SEE ABOVE
ISTE.S.3- c. Students curate information from digital resources using a variety of
tools and methods to create collection so f artifacts that demonstrate meaningful
connections or conclusions.
ISTE.S.6 -a. Students choose the appropriate platforms and tools for meeting the
desired objectives of their creation or communication.
b. Students create original works or responsibly repurpose or remix digital
resources into new creations
ISTE.S.7- b. Students use collaborative technologies to work with others, including
peers, experts or community members, to examine issues and problems from
multiple viewpoints.
d. Students explore local and global issues and use collaborative technologies to
NETS*S work with others to investigate solutions.
Standards:

Overview (a short summary of the lesson or unit including assignment or expected or possible
products)

Students will make an Animal collage to connect to their grade-level PBL unit of Animal Habitats. I

will with introduce students to AR Land Zoo as a game for them to build and learn about animal
habitats. As students are playing the game, they will be using their STEAM sketchbooks to draw new
animals they see, write what these animals might eat, and what their habitat looks like. We will then
move to looking at the work of Dawn Maciocia , and her use of various textures in her work to create
animals. Students will select an animal of their choice to create from mixed media materials and
create a Chatterpix video of their art talking about what the animal needs to survive in its habitat
and to stay off the endangered species list.
 
Collaborating with other teachers in this project will set up students for success in learning science
concepts with homerooms and building on that knowledge connection classes. 

Essential Questions (What essential question or learning are you addressing? What would students
care or want to know about the topic? What are some questions to get students thinking about the
topic or generate interest about the topic? Additionally, what questions can you ask students to help
them focus on important aspects of the topic? (Guiding questions) What background or prior
knowledge will you expect students to bring to this topic and build on?) Remember, essential questions
are meant to guide the lesson by provoking inquiry. They should not be answered with a simple “yes”
or “no” and should have many acceptable answers.

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 Essential Questions:

What do animals need to survive?

How can art send a message?
Why do animals have different textures?
What do I want people to know about my artwork?
 
Students will feel inspired to communicate important facts about their animal to help protect them
and their habitat. Classroom teachers will stress sustainability within environments and the art room
will focus on using art to communicate a message through Chatterpix video creations. With research,
students will learn the consequences of animals looking their habitat and resources and how many
end up on endangered species lists. This lesson is for 1st grade students learning to articulate plant
and animal needs in science and being able to create a paper collage using a variety of materials to
represent their animal. We will be building towards writing artist statements by having students
write facts about their animal and record their script to make the animal talk with their voice.
The lesson is used as a way for students to deepen their understanding of life science, writing and
visual arts.

Assessment (What will students do or produce to illustrate their learning? What can students do to
generate new knowledge? How will you assess how students are progressing (formative assessment)?
How will you assess what they produce or do? How will you differentiate products?) You must attach
copies of your assessment and/or rubrics. Include these in your presentation as well.

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 Students will be creating their own animal collage sculpture in the style of Dawn Maciocia. Using the
elements and principles of art and design, each student will choose an animal they find interesting to
create out of colorful paper and found materials. They will then create a habitat background from
their research to match their animal and photograph it using Chatterpix  to make their artwork talk.
The script information will be from their AR Land Zoo  activity and research with Zoo Atlanta.
Normally, we would do this when 1st grade students visit Zoo Atlanta. We will use technology to help
navigate adding a different experience of seeing animals by utilizing webcams from Zoo Atlanta and
various locations this year. This can also help teachers who plan to do this activity but have a limited
field trip budget or work at a school that does not have close access to a zoo.
Students will need to think beyond just creating art but creating with an audience in mind. They will
need to write in their script what would happen should this animal not be able to get food, water, or
shelter in their habitat. 
 
In art, assessment comes from the students with their reflection. My class has a smiley face rubric
connected to statements of each learning task. Students work will differentiate depending on their
skill level and what animal they choose.  Most 1st graders are still learning how to complete small
tasks of their work instead of trying to make one quick finished drawing in a class period. Teachers
can help students select an animal they like and that will be a good fit for their motor skill level
and earlier work. Flexibility will be given to students when to comes to the rubric (see below) if skills
are still developing. Teacher will require that students have created each part of the lesson, paper
sculpture of an animal, Chatterpix  video, and artist statement for completion.

Spanish & English Art Rubric

Zoo Atlanta Field Trip Info

Resources (How does technology support student learning? What digital tools, and resources—online
student tools, research sites, student handouts, tools, tutorials, templates, assessment rubrics, etc—
help elucidate or explain the content or allow students to interact with the content? What previous
technology skills should students have to complete this project?)

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 Students will need access to technology for this lesson for different activities. With Henderson Mill
Elementary, I’m one-to-one with technology and have a class set of iPads used for majority of the
work. We will begin with using our iPads to research through AR Land Zoo and play a Quizlet to
check for prior knowledge. This could be done on a teacher device if limited with technology, but will
not give the individual or small group learning that should occur at the beginning of this lesson if
student devices are not available.
 
We will move to work in small groups of selected animals by viewing live feeds to see and record in
our STEAM notebooks. Students can draw or write observations with those being in a notebook and
not digital at this point. After the web cams, students will need to learn how to safely look up an
image of their chosen animal on Creative Commons. While it’s not necessary for them to save the
image, they will be referring to it when they build their paper animal using collage techniques, so
starting with safe search skills will help build a foundation early on.
 
*Typically, we take our STEAM journals to Zoo Atlanta to draw what we see, web cams used in this
lesson to accommodate the pandemic year.
 
Students will spend time sketching their chosen animal before they go back into research using Zoo
Atlanta Digital Resources. We will see an Adobe Spark presentation to look at the work
of Dawn Maciocia , this will help students visualize how their animal should look and what kinds of
textures, colors, and designs they can use to make them stand out. After students have created their
animals, they will move into making their facts script for their Chatterpix  video. Prior knowledge
of Chatterpix is helpful, so a quick refresher to all students  will be provided. Students will need to
upload finished projects to their digital portfolios in Artsonia to share with peers and the
community. 

If you have not used Chatterpix  , here is a simple tutorial to get started.

If you have not used Artsonia, here is how you can get started.
 
Digital tools will give students more access to learning about their chosen animal. Virtual reality, web
cam adventures, and online research will help them to see how their animal interacts in their habitat
and to get a closer look to what they look like that they wouldn’t normally get if just going to the
Zoo. Chatterpix is a fun and engaging way to not extend an art project but to help students use their
creativity to share important information about their animal. Artsonia is our online digital portfolio
platform that follows students throughout their art career at Henderson Mill, you can see growth in
their artwork and connect with a wide audience on all projects.

Instructional Plan
Preparation (What student needs, interests, and prior learning provide a foundation for this lesson?
How can you find out if students have this foundation? What difficulties might students have?)

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 Students will need to have the basic understanding of plant and animals needs from their science
teachers. We will begin our lesson in art with a Quizlet game to gauge where students are in
identifying the needs of animals and what we need to discuss before our AR Land Zoo  and sketching
activities. Once all students understand the basic needs, water, food, and shelter, we can begin
the AR Land Zoo activity and have students select an animal they want to create for their project.
Knowing animal needs will help them be successful in the game and be able to create a script for
their chosen animal later. Students who struggle with identifying needs will be given extra time
to review a Generation Genius Video and review the Quizlet before jumping into the AR Land
Zoo Activity.
 
*This lesson is intended for 1st grade students to connect to their Animal Habitats PBL, if majority of
students are not familiar with science content, wait to do this project until they are further along
with their homeroom classes in core content areas.
After the AR Land Zoo activity, students will select which animal they want to focus on to create in a
similar collage style as artist Dawn Maciocia. We will discuss the technique of collage and the
benefits of using recycled and discarded paper scraps in different ways for art.  
 
Things to look out for:
Prior knowledge of science concepts will be key into making sure you are not teaching a science
lesson but building on it and leading students with an art project. Some students might become
frustrated or disengaged if they are not able to draw on this knowledge in our beginning hook
activity. Reviewing the Generation Genius Video together before the Quizlet could help to keep
students engaged and not overwhelmed with content.
 
If technology is not working for parts of the activity, there are a few copies of The Fascinating Animal
Book for Kids: 500 Wild Facts!, that you can grab from the school library and have students use in
small groups.
 
Keep in mind that students are in 1st grade and will still be developing fine-motor skills. This lesson
of collage is to help and allow students to create with various types of paper and recycled materials.
Have a range of paper to accommodate those who might struggle.

Management Describe the classroom management strategies will you use to manage your students
and the use of digital tools and resources. How and where will your students work? (Small groups,
whole group, individuals, classroom, lab, etc.) What strategies will you use to achieve equitable access
to the Internet while completing this lesson? Describe what technical issues might arise during the
Internet lesson and explain how you will resolve or trouble-shoot them? Please note: Trouble-
shooting should occur prior to implementing the lesson as well as throughout the process. Be sure to
indicate how you prepared for problems and work through the issues that occurred as you
implemented and even after the lesson was completed.

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 We are a Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) school and follow three main
expectations; respectful, responsible, and self-control. At the beginning of the year, we drill down
with a school video, visuals, and a kick off celebration on what these expectations look like in each
setting. We go over how we can show these behaviors in the art room and more specifically, when
using technology.
Students pair into table groups of about 3 to 5 and use this as their collaboration groups during
projects. The Quizlet game is a whole group activity using the classroom iPads that I will already
have checked. This will avoid us having to get each student to the correct link and allow me to push
out what we will need using air-drop if a student should get kicked off the game.
Investigative research within the small table groups so students can help each other in different
digital platforms while I circulate answer questions and making sure everyone is on task. Students
can choose to use their district device that travels to each classroom, but I will have a class iPad
ready to go with the tab pulled up for younger students to use for back up. 
Since we use technology often in the art room, trouble shooting is fairly easy for me to do
while monitoring students work. iPads serve as a backup if student technology should freeze or get
disconnected. If technology should stop working completely (internet outage, no charge, etc.)
teacher will have books on hand of various animals for students to use as reference material.
 
iPad Use Video
PBIS back to school video  

Instructional Strategies and Learning Activities – Describe the research-based instructional strategies
you will use with this lesson. How will your learning environment support these activities? What is your
role? What are the students' roles in the lesson? How can you ensure higher order thinking at the
analysis, evaluation, or creativity levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy? How can the technology support your
teaching? What authentic, relevant, and meaningful learning activities and tasks will your students
complete? How will they build knowledge and skills? How will students use digital tools and resources
to communicate and collaborate with each other and others? How will you facilitate the
collaboration?

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 Students will be using the AR Land Zoo experience as a hook into the lesson. Memorization of
material for younger students is not retained unless it’s connected to an experience.
(Increditbleart.org) Using Augmented Reality will introduce a new type of technology and give
students an activity to draw out emotions, incorporate role-playing, and help prompt cooperative
learning to recall information. National Core Art Standard 10 states, “Relate artistic ideas and works
with societal, cultural, and historical context to deepen understanding.”  Standard 10 will help
students to use higher-order thinking skills to connect how art can send a message and encourage
people to take care of animal habitats. Students will be using Augmented Reality that will enable
them to have a greater understanding and take the perspective of their chosen animal. The teacher
is a facilitator when leading students through the research part of the project to get students sharing
what they find with their table groups and evaluating information that will be useful for their script.
Students are using the homeroom PBL to build on information while creating a piece of art that helps
explain what could happen if their animal habitats and resources diminish. Students will share with
other classes and our community through their Artsonia portfolio post at the end of the project.
 
This was not a one-day art project, but done in small increments each week with time devoted to
sketching, problem-solving, and peer collaboration along with their art making.  
Multiple opportunities for a technology rich learning environment and real-world experience with
the animals in a Zoo field* trip help to keep students engaged and focused on the learning. 

* Field trip replaced with animal webcams this year. 

Differentiation (How will you differentiate content and process to accommodate various learning
styles and abilities? How will you help students learn independently and with others? How will you
provide extensions and opportunities for enrichment? What assistive technologies will you need to
provide?)

Students attend connection classes with their devices and headphones to complete assignments or
listen to videos on their own. Teacher will make sure that any video resources will have closed
captioning capabilities and include bilingual content for our ELL population. Students have small
table groups who can help and support each other with small tasks and minor technical support.
 
We used a small group in our introduction and research activity and after students picked their
animal to complete their art project on, I placed them in a new table group with a similar habitat to
help with script writing and awareness Chatterpix video. Sharing within the group to promote ideas
and give feedback gave opportunities to extend student learning. Students who were not
comfortable or unable to speak had a partner help record their script.

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Reflection (Will there be a closing event? Will students be asked to reflect upon their work? Will
students be asked to provide feedback on the assignment itself? What will be your process for
answering the following questions?
• Did students find the lesson meaningful and worth completing?
• In what ways was this lesson effective?
• What went well and why?
• What did not go well and why?
• How would you teach this lesson differently?)

Students will finish their project by uploading their Chatterpix to Artsonia and filling out their artist
statement that we do after each project. The artist statement is something we do to help
them reflect on their work and improve their writing skills while understanding connections they
made with their artwork. When my students used Chatterpix, they really enjoyed being able to see
the product of making their art project talk. Seeing all students excited and working on getting every
step completed is a measurement that students enjoyed the work and found it meaningful. When
they are sharing facts, they found with other teachers and their parents, the lesson is effective in
getting students to take what they are in learning in class and feeling compelled to share it with a
wider audience.

What was difficult this year was not having the Zoo Atlanta field due to the pandemic. Typically, we
connect to that experience to have students engaged and excited of what they are working on after
seeing many of the animals in real-life. When they are able to view it from a few feet away instead of
just a computer screen, it makes the learning that much more meaningful in the classroom.

Closure: Anything else you would like to reflect upon regarding lessons learned and/or your experience
with implementing this lesson. What advice would you give others if they were to implement the
lesson? Please provide a quality reflection on your experience with this lesson and its implementation.
My suggestion would be if you are not yet comfortable with PBL or STEAM to use this as a way to
start connecting projects into different disciplines. This type of project done with homeroom and
connection teachers with proper planning and pacing can be a very effective outline for
more interdisciplinary work. We were still successful in building on a PBL and adding more
technology during a pandemic year because we’ve done this project in previous school years. As
educators, focus a lot on students’ evaluation and using higher order thinking skills when they go
through the learning process that we as teachers sometimes forget to do the same. This
project might not be done exactly how we did it at Henderson Mill but you can take it and adjust to
your curriculum and improve each year that you implement it. It’s important to jump right in when
doing STEAM lessons but to know that the first version isn’t always going to be perfect but a work in
progress with every batch of students you get.

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