Primary art activities – Grades 3-6

by Elaine Gallagher

Hello Teachers. Here are 3 activities involving art / music and academic content. You can choose any of them to use with your students. None of these are in the UNO books. They are supplemental activities to support your work! In other  issues of UNONEWS, I’ll offer you more activities to stimulate the creativity of your students.

 

ACTIVITY 1

TITLE: «Farming and Ranching»

MATERIALS NEEDED: (per team)

• plastic modeling clay
• small models of trees, animals, plants

TO STUDENTS:  (This is a project for several days.) Have you ever been to a ranch?  What did you do?  What did you see? Have you ever been to a farm?  What did you do?  What did you see? What is the BIGGEST difference between a ranch and a farm? Is it size?   NO!

A ranch is usually dedicated to animals such as cattle, used for meat products, and horses, used for racing or ranching.

A farm is usually dedicated to production of plants and food products, such as cows (milk, butter, and cheese), chickens, pigs, corn, and other farm products.

1. In today’s project you will meet with your team to brainstorm ideas about what you want to demonstrate or model: a farm or a ranch?
2. Once you decide, begin to organize responsibilities. Make a pencil drawing of how you want your ranch or farm to appear. Who will bring what objects?
3. The final day of the project is to put together your artwork (a ranch or a farm) on a table or other place that your teacher designates.
4. When all the material has been organized, each team will have one speaker who tells the class what and why the team chose to create.
5. A second speaker will then tell the class some interesting information about the functions of what the team made: a ranch or a farm.

You will end up with a great 3-dimensional project that others can see.  Maybe you can invite Kindergarten children to see the projects.

 

FACT OF THE DAY

What is an «endangered species»?

• It is an animal or plant that is almost extinct.  Once it is extinct, we can never bring them back. One of our closes relative, the great apes, are close to extinction. For example, 50 years ago there were 5 million chimpanzees (5,000,000) living in the wild in Africa.
• Now, there are fewer than 150,000.

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ACTIVITY 2

TITLE: «Comparing Ecosystems»

MATERIALS NEEDED:

• Internet access
• large paper or posters
• colored markers or paints
• various colored paper to cut-out forms
• scissors and glue

TO STUDENTS: Have you ever heard the word ecosystem before…? on television or in a class? Do you get an image in your brain when you hear the word ecosystem? Let us look at the word ecosystem.

ECO is short for ecology, the study of living things, their habitats, and their relationship to each other.

SYSTEM: is a way of organizing things or an explanation of how things are organized.

Your teacher will explain the idea of ecology and you will have a class discussion.

1. Then, your team (of 3 or 4 persons) will make a mural ( a drawing of many things  of the same theme, on a long wall or rolls of paper) or a drawing showing a specific ecosystem, such as a forest, a desert, coastal (ocean shore) area, etc. You will include drawings of the animals, their homes, the vegetation and water in the area, the topography of the area, etc. Topography means the type of land, such as flat, mountains, etc.
2. You may use real things for your mural, such as twigs (small sticks of wood), grass, leaves, etc.  You can cut out pictures of animals, flowers, plants; you can draw and paint pictures. Put in drawings of the sun, or rain, or a rainbow, types of insects, and birds, etc.
3. BE CREATIVE!  Your murals can be hung on the walls of your classroom, or, perhaps. In the hallways of your school.
4. Remember: as a REAL artist, make sure that you all sign your names in the lower right-hand corner of the mural, with the date.

 

FACT OF THE DAY

Who was a very famous artist, famous for the colorful murals that he painted in the 19^th and 20^th Centuries?

• There are more than one, but a world-famous example is DIEGO RIVERA, from Mexico, who lived between 1886 and 1957.

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ACTIVITY 3

TITLE: «Songs of Mother and Grandmother»

MATERIALS NEEDED:

• paper
• pencils
• glitter (gold, silver sparkles)
• glue

TO STUDENTS: When you were little, 4 or 5 years old, did your mother sing songs to you?  Did your grandmother, or an aunt sing songs to you? Little by little, when they repeated the song, you learned it easily, just because they repeated it over and over again. Think about a song you learned as a child.  If Spanish is your first language, you learned your first songs in Spanish, the same way that native English speakers learn their first songs in English. As you try to remember the words of the songs you had learned as a young child, hum the tune, because that may help you to remember the words.

Now, you will use same technique to remember songs that you are learning in English.  Play a CD with songs; then sing with your teacher and with your friends. Repetition, over and over, will help you remember the words and melody. Your teacher will present some OLD songs, songs that maybe a grandmother taught to your teacher. Listen, repeat, and sing.  Your English will improve and you will have more music entering your mind.

Internet has many songs, old ones from your mother’s or father’s or grandmother’s time. Your teacher will select a few to teach you.  Sing them often, not only today, so you can remember them to teach to your children.

HERE ARE SOME WORDS TO SONGS. YOU CAN FIND THE MELODIES ON INTERNET:

This song is almost 100 years old.

«BICYCLE BUILT FOR TWO»       

Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do. 

I’m half crazy, all for the love of you.

It won’t be a stylish marriage.

I can’t afford a carriage;

But you’ll look sweet, upon the seat

Of a bicycle built for two.

 

You can act this out. You can find a photo of a bicycle for two people, with two seats. When were they in wide use? Have you ever ridden one?

Here is another old song, more than 50 years old.

It can be sung as a «round». Remember, a «round» is when a song is sung by two or 3 groups of people, each one beginning at a different point of the song.

 

«MAKE NEW FRIENDS»

Make new friends,

But keep the old;

One is silver,

And the other gold.

 

NOW:  Illustrate the song.

Draw a picture of two friends.  Put a thin, smooth layer of glue around or an each one. On one friend, put gold glitter in a thin layer. Repeat with the second friend’s drawing, using silver.  Label your picture, «Make New Friends».

 

FACT OF THE DAY

How long is the Suez canal in Egypt?

• It is 100 miles (160 km) long.
• Find it on a map.

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