Shape Monsters

Author:	Katie Francis
Year:	2015
Artform:	Visual Art
Subjects:	Math
Grade:	2nd Grade
Duration:	Two 45 minute sessions
Overview:	The students will create a piece of artwork using explorative thought and the shapes provided to create a monster. They will also understand the meaning of “organic” and “geometric” shapes as well as ”overlapping”.

SUPPLIES, EQUIPMENT AND RESOURCES

Shape Copy Page (page 4 of PDF)
8 1/2 x 11 Card Stock
Coloring Supplies
Scissors
Glue

VISUALS:

2D Shapes and 3D Shapes (2D ideas: pieces of paper/cardboard cut into shapes both organic and geometric;
3D ideas: cans of soup/ boxes; fruit; pieces of clay in weird shapes, items found in nature, etc.)

*Note A if you cannot or do not have time find physical visuals, you could also put together a PowerPoint of visuals to show the students, which integrates technology into your lesson.

Download PDF Lesson Plan

Standards & Objectives

Fine Art Standards

Integrated Standards

Objectives

VISUAL ART STANDARD 1:

The student will explore and refine skills with art materials, techniques, and processes.

VISUAL ART STANDARD 2:

The student will analyze, reflect on, and apply the structures of art.

MATHEMATICS STANDARD (4):

Students describe and analyze shapes by examining their sides and angles. Students investigate, describe, and reason about decomposing and combining shapes to make other shapes.

Through building, drawing, and analyzing two and three dimensional shapes, students develop a foundation for understanding area, volume, congruence, similarity, and symmetry in later grades.

Second grade students will understand the difference between geometric and organic shapes.

Teaching and Timeline

Introduction

Open by having all the visual objects displayed on a table or on your document camera.

Have a brief 5 minute classroom descriptive ‘BRAINSTORM’ discussion with questions like: What do all these objects have in common? Why could they all be there?

Demonstration

On the Practice Paper, fold or divide it in half and label the top as geometric and the bottom as organic.

Discuss with the students some shapes that they have learned in Math class already and write them on the board.
Discuss the attributes of those shapes: round, sharp, straight, how many vertices, how many angles, etc.
Explain that in art we call those ”geometric shapes”. They are made up of sharp corners, straight sides, man-made, perfect etc.)Have the students draw 5+ geometric shapes on their paper.

Explain what makes an ”organic shape” organic: Organic shapes are not Mathematic shapes, they have: rounded imperfect sides, not man made, found in nature, etc. and have the students draw 5+ organic shapes on their paper.

Work Period

Day 1:

Pass out the copy of the random shapes. Explain that the challenge today is to make the craziest monster they can think of using all the shapes on the paper.
They will need to color and/or design each shape first before cutting them out.
Each student will receive a printed ‘shape’ paper and a blank piece of card stock.
Once all the shapes are colored, create a pocket out of paper and then let the students carefully cut the shapes out and put them into the pockets. Remind them that they don’t want to lose any pieces because their grade depends on having all the pieces!

Day 2:

Finish cutting out all the pieces.
Once they are all accounted for, pass out the card stock, have the students label it with their name on the back.
On the front side, have them arrange the pieces into the shape of their crazy monster NO GLUE yet – arranging them first will insure that they like where the pieces are first before they are permanent.
Once all 15 pieces are arranged, perfect, and accounted for, then they can glue them down. (Have scrap papers available so that they can glue the edges without gluing the table.)
After gluing all the pieces, they can then embellish their picture using markers or crayons to add a little more detail to the piece.

Closure/Summary

During future assignments you could review the terms of Geometric and Organic when viewing artwork, other assignments or in classroom discussions.

INTEGRATION INFORMATION

Recognize and draw shapes having specified attributes, such as a given number of angles or a given number of equal faces.12 Identify triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons, hexagons, and cubes.

DIFFERENTIATION

Adjust the time needed for class needs if it is taking more or less time.

VOCABULARY

Organic: Term used to describe shapes and forms that are uneven, undulating, or having the quality of growth. Often these shapes have no hard edges.
Geometric: Precise shapes that can be described using mathematic formulae. These shapes generally have hard edges, corners, or a machinelike quality.
Basic Shapes: Simple shapes such as circles, ovals, squares, rectangles, and triangles.
2-D: Two-dimensional, flat art, such as paintings, drawings, or prints, whose physical dimensions are height and width.
3-D: Three-dimensional, in-the-round art, such as sculptures, architecture, or carvings, whose physical dimensions are height, width, and depth.

ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

FORMATIVE:

While the students are coloring all the shapes, walk around and discuss with them or have them discuss as a group what each piece could possibly be on the monster.

SUMMATIVE:

Have a discussion at the end of the projects and let the students do a ”Gallery Walk” were they view all the student artwork and discuss what they liked about all the pieces. (What pieces they liked for what parts, etc.) While walking around, make sure that the student clearly made a creature of some sort and that it roughly looks like they used all the pieces required. Also discuss if their creature looks more Geometric or Organic now that it is finished and have them name it.