Art Integration Unit Plan Template 1

Art Integration Unit Plan Template

LTC 4240: Art for Children

Unit Title & Big Idea: Plants Grade Level: 3
rd

Unit Overview/Summary:
In this unit, students will learn what plants need to survive and the life cycle they go through. They will plant their
own seeds and watch them grow. Students will learn about a narrative and write their own about a seed. Students
will also learn about surrealism and incorporate that into their narrative writing and the pop-up art they make to
represent the seed from their story.

Class Periods Required:
Seven periods approximately
45 minutes each
Key Concepts (3-4)
1. Needs and life cycle of a plant
2. Imagination and characteristic of surrealism incorporated into narrative
writing and art
Essential Questions (3-4)
1. What do plants need to survive?
2. What is surrealism?
3. How do you write a narrative?
Unit Objectives: (Excellent resource at http://www.teachervision.fen.com/curriculum-planning/new-teacher/48345.html?for_printing=1&detoured=1)
1. Students should understand and be able to explain the plants needs and life cycle through a book, discussion, and their own writing piece
2. Students should be able to understand and incorporate surrealism into their writing and art piece.

Grade Level Expectations (GLEs) (3-4)
(http://dese.mo.gov/divimprove/curriculum/GLE/)
Visual Art
2. Content Standard: Using knowledge of *structures and functions
6. Content Standard: Making connections between visual arts and other
disciplines
Science
Strand 3: Characteristics and Interactions of Living Organisms
1. There is a fundamental unity underlying the diversity of all living
organisms
A. Organisms have basic needs for survival
a. Describe the basic needs of most plants (i.e., air, water, light,
nutrients, temperature)
B. Organisms progress through life cycles unique to different types or
organisms
b. Describe and sequence the stages in the life cycle (for a plant) of a
seed germination, growth, and development, reproduction, and death
(i.e., a flowering plant)
Core Academic Standards (Common Core State Standards) (3-4)
(http://www.corestandards.org/)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.3
Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using
effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.3.A
Establish a situation and introduce a narrator and/or characters; organize an
event sequence that unfolds naturally.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.3.B
Use dialogue and descriptions of actions, thoughts, and feelings to develop
experiences and events or show the response of characters to situations.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.3.C
Use temporal words and phrases to signal event order.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.3.D
Provide a sense of closure.

Content Areas Integrated:
1. Visual Art
2. Literacy
Identify & define common vocabulary/concepts that connect the art
form with the other identified subject area(s):
Life Cycle the series of stages in form and functional activity
Art Integration Unit Plan Template 2

3. Science

through which an organism passes between successive recurrences
of a specified primary stage
Narrative a story that is told or written
Surrealism a 20
th
-century art form in which an artist or writer
combines unrelated images or events in a very strange and dreamlike
way
Lesson Titles in Sequence/Order
1. What do plants need?

2. The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle

3. Plant a Seed

4. What is surrealism?

5. Seed Narrative

6. Pop-Up

7. Final Day Sharing
Brief Lesson Descriptions (2-3 sentences each)
1. Students will have a class discussion about what plants need to
survive. By the end of the lesson students should know they need
sunlight, water, and air (carbon dioxide).

2. Teacher will read the students the book The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle.
Students will then have a discussion about what happened to the seed
and the life process that it went through. They will then make a chart of
the life cycle of a plant.

3. Students will then have the opportunity to plant their own seeds and
find a place to put their plant where they think it will grow best. The
class will also plant a couple of seeds together and choose one to put in a
location without sunlight and one that they will not water and see how
that effects those seeds compared to their own seeds.

4. The teacher will refer back to Eric Carles story and bring up the large
flower in the story and have a discussion about that and whether or not
it is realistic? The teacher will then discuss surrealism with the student
and how it is used in art and in writing.

5. The students will discuss what narrative writing is and the different
aspects of a narrative and make a chart to refer back to. Once students
understand the parts of a narrative, they will have the opportunity to
begin writing their own story about a seed. They will be asked to use
their imagination to tell the story and must include the different parts of
a narrative, the things a seed needs to survive, and the life cycle of a seed.
Students will have support from other students and the teacher in the
writing process.

6. The students will have the opportunity to be surrealist artists by
creating an artistic representation of the seed from their narrative. They
Art Integration Unit Plan Template 3

will be shown different pieces by surrealist art, such as Rene Magrittes
The Clearing, 1944 and Karma 2003 by Do-Ho Suh; in order to see what
surrealist art is like. They will then choose which point in the plants life
cycle that they would like to portray and create a 3-dimensional pop-up
of their plant.

7. On the final day of the unit, the class will be able to look at each of the
seeds they planted and compare them, and have a class discussion about
why they think some seeds grew (or did not grow) as well as others.
Students will also have the opportunity to share their narrative story and
pop-up character with the class.
What student prior knowledge will this unit require/draw upon?
Students will draw upon their prior knowledge of plant life and what they think plants need to survive. Students will also use their prior knowledge
of narratives and the writing process.
Students must have already been exposed to surrealism. Students must also know the writing process. This unit also draws upon prior knowledge of
plant life.

What activities will you use to engage students in imagining, exploring, and/or experimenting in this unit?
Students will be exploring and experimenting by planting their own individual seeds and class seeds and seeing how the water and sunlight, or lack
there of, will effect the life of their seed. Students will be imaging by personifying their seed and writing a narrative about it.

How will this unit permit/encourage students to solve problems in divergent ways?
They will take their seed and personify it by writing their own narrative about it and representing it through their art work.

How will you engage students in routinely reflecting on their learning/learning processes?
Each activity builds on the previous activity, therefore, students will continuously have the opportunity to reflect on and build their knowledge of the
topic. Class discussions through out the unit will also allow for routine reflecting.

How will this unit engage students in assessing their own work and the work of peers?
In class discussions students will have the opportunity to make sure they understand all of the concepts by listening to the things the teacher and
other students say. During discussions, charts will be made for students to refer back to through out the unit to assess their knowledge. Students will
also be supporting one another in the writing process of their narrative and that will be a great time for students to be able to assess one another and
make sure they are understanding and applying all of the concepts correctly.

What opportunities/activities will students be given to revise and improve their understandings and their work?
Through discussions and creating the charts of information, students will be able to make sure they understand each concept correctly. Their
narrative pieces also incorporate each of the concepts from the unit and it will be a very important part. As students work on their piece with the help
Art Integration Unit Plan Template 4

of resources, their classmates, and the teacher, they will be able to revise and improve their understanding through out the process.

What opportunities/activities will you provide for students to share their learning/understanding/work in this unit?
Through out the unit there are class discussions, which are a great time for students to share their thoughts with the class. There will also be time
during the writing process when classmates help one another in revising and editing their narratives so students will be able to share their work and
understanding with classmates then. And finally, on the last day of the unit, students will be able to share their seed that they planted and cared for
with the class and the narratives they wrote along with the pop-up they created of their character.

How will you adapt the various aspects of this lesson to differently-abled students?
Differently-abled students will still have the opportunity to participate in each lesson but may have activities altered for them. For the book, they may
be able to watch a video of the book with the narration. For the narrative piece, they could have more support in their writing or may be able to draw
pictures or type their story if they are not capable of writing one.


References
Silverstein, L. B. & Layne, S. (n.d.). Defining arts integration. Retrieved from
http://www.americansforthearts.org/networks/arts_education/publications/special_publications/Defining%20Arts%20Integration.pdf

Carle, E. (2001). The Tiny Seed. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.

Life Cycle. (n.d.). In Merriam-Webster. Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/life%20cycle

Magritte, Rene. The Clearing. 1944. WikiPaintings Visual Art Encyclopedia. Web. 07 May 2014.

Narrative. (n.d.). In Merriam-Webster. Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/narrative

Suh, Do-Ho. Karma. 2003. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. MFAH. Web. 07 May 2014.

Surrealism. (n.d.). In Merriam-Webster. Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/surrealism

Voorhies, James. (October 2004). Surrealism. Retrieved from http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/surr/hd_surr.htm (October 2004)