Water Colors

Various water color student samples from adapted art lessons for my special education students at Chittenden South Supervisory Union High School, Hinesburg, Vermont

Shad: A Local Fish Art Project

SHAD

Shad are amazing fish.  The shad is a kind of fish that lives part of its life in the Delaware River.  Shad have a metallic blue to green back and its sides are silver to white.  Shad have lived in the Delaware River for thousands of years.

Indians fished for Shad during the annual spring spawning runs and taught early settlers how to catch shad in order to feed their families.  Shad saved George Washington’s troops from starvation as they camped along the Schuykill River, a tributary of the Delaware.  Washington, later on in his life would write that he caught over 1500 Shad.  By the 1800’s fisherman caught Shad by the ton.  Farmers took advantage of this seamless endless supply of fish by using them as fertilizer on their fields.  People prized Shad for their delicious meat and tasty eggs (roe).  Everyone eagerly awaited the spring migration of Shad.

In the Spring of each year, adult Shad between 4 and 6 years old, return from the Atlantic Ocean to the streams where they were born.  Male a female Shad travel as far upstream as possible where they spawn.  The eggs hatch before they drift all the way back to the Ocean.  After reaching the ocean, the immature Shad form schools and begin a three to 5 year migration pattern only in the ocean.  They feed plankton and smaller fish.  Upon reaching maturity, they return to their home stream to continue the cycle.

America grew rapidly and people fished more and more for Shad.  Pollution also became a problem for the Shad.  By the 1970’s, Shad were almost nowhere to be found.  People decided to find ways to clean the Delaware River and control how much fishing occurred.  By the early 1980’s shad began to make a small comeback.  The Shad festival in Lambertville NJ began as a celebration for the comeback of the Shad.  People are now aware that polluting and over-fishing hurt the Shad.  We can help this amazing fish by keeping its habitat healthy and by not over-fishing.

School -  A large number of fish in a group

Migrate – To move from one area to another in a cycle

Habitat – The natural area that a plant or animal lives

Shad – A fish that lives both in the Delaware River and the Atlantic Ocean

Animal Portraits

Objectives

• Students use a variety of values (lights and darks).

• Students use accurate sizes of facial features in portraits.

Identify (Analyze) visual/tactile characteristics of artworks

from diverse cultures, different places or time.

Anticipatory Set:

1.    Show “Animal Portraits” PowerPoint

2.    Share photographs or printouts of a variety of animals. You might invite students to bring to class their own photos of pets or favorite animals.

3.    What animals do you like?  What makes you like them?  (fly, run fast, bright colors, camoflogue)

Activities

Review the theme in life that “groups of people often share ideas, yet each individual makes his or her own personal

choices” and the theme in art that “artists’ styles are both personal and influenced by the world around

them.” Also review the unit’s three key questions:

1. How do artists use value (light and dark)?

2. How do parts of a face fit together to make a portrait?

3. What are the distinctive characteristics of an individual artist’s style?

Assignment:

1. Student are to select the animal they will be drawing.

2. They will sketch their animals portrait.

3. When that is completed, with teacher approval, students will retrieve large white paper and sketch their portrait. 

4.  Once that is completed, we will stop as a class for a mini lesson the use of and mixture of paints.

5.  Students will continue on to paint their portraits.

6.  Closure:  Students will name their animal and title their artwork.

Materials:

Animal Portraits PowerPoint

Collection of photographs or printouts of animal images.

Pencils

Sketch paper

Erasers

18'x24' paper

Oil-based paints

Vocabulary

Portrait, Profile, Vertical, Individual, Angled View, Middle-tone, Expression, Direction

Full Face, Horizontal

Extension Idea

SCIENCE: Animal species

STUDENT SAMPLE