Students will learn about making patterns as they create a paper caterpillar.
By MaryAnne Messier
What You Need:
- 3×3 colored construction paper squares (red, yellow, blue)
- scissors
- glue
- crayons
- 10×12 white construction paper
- 12×18 colored construction paper (to create another page)
- I Can Make a Pattern Handout
What You Do:
- Talk about patterns. How they repeat, and the different types of patterns (color, numbers, shapes, letters, etc.) Have them try to find patterns on their clothes or around the room. Once they understand the basic of patterns, that they repeat then you are ready to start the lesson.
- Have student round the corners of the squares to create circles. Then they need to arrange it in a pattern (red, yellow, blue, red, yellow, blue, etc.) or whatever color they want to come first, on the construction paper.
- Once you have checked that they have completed the pattern correctly they can glue it down on the white paper (have them arrange it so it looks like a caterpillar)
- After they have glued on the circles and created a caterpillar they can then use their crayons to add details, like legs, antenna’s, etc.
- Then they glue the whole project on the large colored construction paper.
- Glue the “I can make a pattern” strip on the colored construction paper, date the back of the page. You have another completed page in your art book.
► Go to Page Four (Warm/Cool Colors)
Related Lessons and Resources:
►“I can make a pattern” strip
► The Art Book – Index
The Art Book is a special series of lessons from Maryanne Messier, a teacher from Janesville Wisconsin. “This Art Book theme was created to help art educators by giving them another form of assessment. So many times we as art educators find it difficult to assess a child’s progress when projects are sent home. By using portfolio assessment it is easier to judge a child’s progress because you can see it from beginning to end. The idea of the art book came from a colleague of mine, Mary Jo Paup. She developed the “book” idea while working towards her masters. When she told me about the idea I decided to use it with my kindergartners. I used the Janesville School District’s Art Curriculum as a basis for each project page. It was a challenge but well worth it. The beauty of portfolio assessment is that it starts in kindergarten and can follow them through their elementary career. As the child grows so do the books and the lessons. If you decide to use this form of assessment in your class, I hope your class enjoys these lessons as much as mine did. -Maryanne Messier
Some images are courtesy of Teach a Fish Homeschool.
