Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

5 minutes – Part A: Activating Prior Knowledge
15 minutes – Part B: See, Think, Wonder
15 minutes – Part C: What Makes You Say That?
20 minutes – Part D: Making Art
5 minutes – Reflection

Part A: Activating Prior Knowledge

Step 1.

Begin the lesson by bringing out your examples of plastic waste and putting them on the front desk. Explain to students that these are some things that you pulled out of your rubbish bin. Invite students to identify the objects.

Step 2.

Explain that plastic is an amazing material because it comes in all sorts of shapes and colours. It can be strong or it can be bendy, it can hold water and it lasts for ages. The trouble is that we use it to make so many things that the world is becoming full of plastic.

Ask students if they can think of any places where plastic is a problem. Suggested answers could include:

The ocean
In nature
In cities
In the rubbish tip
In the playground

Explain to students that they are going to have a look at an artwork that is made out of plastic.

Part B: See, Think, Wonder

Note: This section of the lesson introduces the 'See, Think, Wonder' routine as a class discussion. If your students are already familiar with this routine, feel free to alter the lessons to be a small group or paired activity.

Step 1.

Project or hand out the following photograph of Kathy Allam’s artwork 'Happy Floating Dream Cloud', 2013 photo from Sculpture By The Sea (Cottesloe). Explain that this is an artwork by an artist who lives in Western Australia called Kathy Allam.

In this section, students will look at this artwork and respond to the questions ‘What do you see?, ‘What do you think about that?’, and ‘What does it make you wonder?' For older students, you may want to use the Student Worksheet which contains some 'See, Think, Wonder' guiding questions, and encourage them to record their ideas individually.

Step 2.

Encourage students to look carefully at the artwork. Then, ask students ‘What do you see?’ Record their responses on the whiteboard under the heading ‘See’.

Students may initially list the kinds of toys they can see in the artwork (for example, toy train). Encourage them to expand their observations with questions like:

What sort of colours can you see?
What do you think the toys are made out of?
Where is this artwork?
How are all the toys hanging?
What shape do they make all together?
How big do you think it is?

Allow students time to list all their observations. This step gives students the opportunity to look closely for things that will help them in forming opinions and evaluating the artwork.

Step 3.

Ask students ‘What do you think about that?’ Record their responses on the board under the heading ‘Think’.

Encourage students to reference the specific things that they observed in the previous step. You can do this by asking questions such as:

You said that the colours are bright - what do you think about that?
You said that the toys are all made out of plastic - what do you think about that?
You said that it looks like it’s outside - what do you think about that?

This step is an opportunity for students to explore and express their opinions. Encourage them to explain their opinions with further questions. For example, if a student says ‘I think the colours make it look cool’, invite them to further explore that opinion by asking ‘What is it about the colours that makes it look cool?’

If students are having trouble contributing to this part of the activity, consider combining this with a Think, Pair, Share, allowing students to collaborate on suggestions before contributing to the class discussion.

Step 4.

Ask students ‘What does it make you wonder?’ Record their responses on the whiteboard under the heading ‘Wonder’.

Encourage students to link their ‘wonderings’ to observations and opinions from the previous steps. For example:

I see plastic toys. I think wow - that’s a lot of plastic toys! I wonder where she got them all from?
I see a cloud. I think that’s why it’s hanging up in the air. I wonder why she made a cloud out of toys?
I see that it’s outside. I think that’s cool because art is usually inside. I wonder if people can play with it?

This step allows students to develop questions about what they are looking at, and encourages them to activate prior knowledge by identifying connections.

Step 5.

Finish the 'See, Think, Wonder' thinking routine by repeating some of the students’ observations, opinions and questions in the “I see..., I think..., I wonder…” format. This will help demonstrate how the three ways of thinking are interlinked. You may invite students to write one of the “I see..., I think..., I wonder…” sentences in their books.

Part C: What Makes You Say That?

Step 1.

Invite students to look again at the examples of plastic waste that you brought in.

Step 2.

Explain that you are going to ask them some questions about the plastic objects, but after they answer you will also ask them ‘What makes you say that?’

Ask students the following questions about the plastic objects. You may choose a specific object to ask some of the questions about. After each answer, invite students to also answer the question ‘What makes you say that?’:

What is this made out of? - What makes you say that?
What do you think this is for? - What makes you say that?
How many times do you think you could use this? - What makes you say that?
How should we dispose of this item? - What makes you say that?
What might happen if we don’t recycle it? - What makes you say that?

If students’ answers are surface level, encourage them to think deeper by continuing to ask them ‘What makes you say that?’ until they are able to really justify their response.

Step 3.

Now that you have introduced the ‘What makes you say that’ routine, you can make your initial question more open by replacing it with ‘What’s going on?’

Choose a recyclable plastic item and throw it in the general waste bin. Ask students ‘What’s going on?’ Then, invite students to justify their responses by asking ‘What makes you say that?’

Repeat this activity with different scenarios. These may include:

Take the plastic item out of general waste and throw it in the recycling bin. Again, ask students ‘What’s going on?’ and ‘What makes you say that?’
Pretend that you are going to throw a plastic item out the window. Ask ‘What’s going on?’, ‘What makes you say that?’
Tell students that you’re going to use a plastic container to plant seeds in. Ask ‘What’s going on?’, ‘What makes you say that?’

Step 4.

Finish this section by sorting the recyclable plastics into the recycling bin, and the non-recyclable ones into the general waste.

Explain that we can waste less plastic by putting it in the right bins, or by reusing it to make new things.

Part D: Making Art

Step 1.

Remind students of Kathy Allam’s cloud of plastic toys. Ask students why they think Kathy made her cloud out of plastic toys. Encourage them to expand their answers by asking ‘What makes you say that?’

Step 2.

If it does not come up in the previous discussion, explain that sometimes artists choose to make artworks out of recycled things - like old plastic toys - to make us think about plastic waste.

Ask students how much rubbish they think their family throws away every year. Explain that every year the average Australian family produces enough rubbish to fill a three-bedroom house, producing about 2.25 kg of waste each per day.

Explain that students are going to make a drawing of something like Kathy’s cloud. It will be something big, but when you look closely you will see that it’s made up of plastic things.

Step 3.

Invite students to think of plastic waste items that could be used to make art. Encourage them to think of things with bright colours. Record their responses on the board. Suggested responses include:

Plastic straws
Bottle tops
Broken toys
Lolly wrappers
Fishing nets
Plastic rope and string
Broken flip flops

Now, invite students to think of something big. Record their responses on the board. Suggested responses include:

A house
An elephant
A cloud
A bulldozer

Step 4.

Now, explain that students will need to choose one of the large things from the board and draw its outline on a piece of paper. Demonstrate this on the board. Then, they will need to choose some of the plastic waste items from the list on the board, and draw them many times so that they fill up the outline. Demonstrate this on the board.

Step 5.

Distribute paper and drawing materials to students. Encourage them to make the outline of the large thing big enough to fill up the whole page.

Allow students time to make their artwork.

Reflection

Once students have completed their drawings, invite them to pack away the drawing materials. Then, invite them to leave their drawings on their desk, stand up and walk around the room to look at everyone else’s work.

Invite students to return to their desks. Ask students ‘When you looked at everyone’s works together, I’d like to know: what did you see, what did you think, and what did that make you wonder?’. Give students time to think about their answer before responding. Encourage students to use the ‘I see..., I think..., I wonder…’ structure in their answer, however it’s ok if you need to prompt them with the questions (e.g. 'And what did you think about that?')

Differentiated Learning

Extension: If students finish early encourage them to add more detail into their drawings. Use colours and try to cover all the white paper. Encourage them to experiment with ways to use art materials to create different effects and textures.

You could end this lesson by working with students to safely collect the used plastic material in their drawing with the intention of using these materials in another lesson where students actually make and display artworks from these materials.

Provisions for Learning Support: Students requiring additional support can collaborate on their 'See, Think, Wonder' responses throughout the lesson.

Teacher Reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

What did you learn about your teaching today?
What worked well?
What didn't work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

Creative Sustainability - Plastic Waste Artworks

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