Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes – Part A: Activating Prior Knowledge
40 minutes – Part B: Plants In The Schoolyard
10 minutes – Reflection

Preparation:

Identify a range of plants and plant materials in the schoolyard that students could visit, observe and draw. Ideally you might find a range of plants such as trees, shrubs, grasses and flowering plants, and juvenile and mature examples of some of these plants. You should also look for plants with different examples of venation (the arrangement of veins in a leaf). Alternatively, collect a range of plant materials to bring to the classroom, including leaves with different examples of venation, grass, bark, twigs, seeds, fruit, mature and juvenile plants.

Part A: Activating Prior Knowledge

Step 1.

Begin by inviting students to work in pairs or independently to think about plants and write down as many words as they can that remind them of plants, for example, green, tree, leaf, branch, flower, etc.

Give students one minute to think up these words.

Step 2.

The teacher should use a computer to create a word cloud using an online tool like Word It Out (https://worditout.com/), inviting students to share the words they thought of. Repeat words are fine, as words that are repeated will appear larger in the final word cloud.

Once all students have had the chance to share the words they thought of, generate your class word cloud and share it with your students, identifying the most and least common words thought up by the class.

Step 3.

Now invite students to share their thoughts in response to the following questions:

Why are plants important?
Why do we need plants?

Through your discussion, lead students to the idea that plants have a vital role to play in our environment. Plants:

Absorb some of the CO₂ we breath out and release oxygen that we need to breathe.
Provide us with much of the food we eat. And most of the animals that we eat also eat plants.
Play an important part of the water cycle, helping us to have access to fresh, clean water.
Provide us with many of the materials we need for our lives, like wood, paper and cotton.

Part B: Plants In The Schoolyard

Step 1.

Explain to students that they will now be heading outside to look at and draw plants and leaves in the schoolyard. Before heading out, remind students of your rules for outdoor learning:

Step 2.

Lead students to the plants you identified for students to observe. With the students, use this image to identify the parts of a plant. Once complete, direct student attention to the leaves, and talk to students about the veins on the leaves, explaining that there are many different patterns of veins.

Invite students to work in pairs or groups to find three examples of leaves with different patterns of veins. You can use the Leaf Venation Factsheet to help students identify the different types of veins they find.

Step 3.

Once students have had the chance to look at the leaves in your yard, explain to students that they will now draw a picture of these leaves, called a leaf study. Give each student a piece of paper on a clipboard and a graphite pencil.

Break the class into pairs or small groups and give each group some coloured pencils or Connector pens, and a copy of the Colouring Techniques Handout.

Students should aim draw a range of different leaf types and choose the technique that they believe best conveys the venation and overall appearance of the leaf. For example (images also available here):

Step 4.

Invite students to find a leaf that they find interesting or unusual. To assist students with the process of drawing their leaves, lead students through the following steps:

Students should begin by looking at their leaf with artistic eyes. This means that students need to start thinking about how they will draw the leaf. Invite students to consider the following:
- What shape is the leaf? Is it long and thin, or short, round and fat? Does it bend or is it an even shape on both sides?
- What do the edges of the leaf look like? Smooth or ridged?
- Are there any other interesting features of the leaf, like interesting bumps and lumps?
Invite students to imagine that their finger is a pencil and that the air is the paper. Students should ‘trace’ the leaf they are drawing with their finger in the air, using this to help them define the shape of the leaf they want to draw.
Now invite students to take out their pieces of paper. Again, using their fingers, invite students to draw their leaf on the paper, imagining that the shapes they just drew in the air are being transferred to the paper.
Once complete, students can begin using their graphite pencils to actually draw on the paper. At this stage, they should just be aiming to draw an outline.
Once students are happy with their outline they can colour in what they have drawn using the coloured pencils or Connector pens, remembering to select the colours that they see on the leaf they are drawing, and to select a technique that best portrays the texture of the leaf and the effect of sunlight on the leaf (i.e. are there any shadows?).
Students can aim to fill their piece of paper with images of leaves, varying the colours and techniques to best suit the individual leaves they are drawing. Students could also use their workbooks or a piece of scrap paper to experimenting with techniques before adding them to their drawing.

Step 5.

Allow students time to complete their drawings.

Step 6.

Invite students to select one leaf drawing they are most happy with and to share this with the class by describing:

Why they chose this leaf
What was interesting about this leaf
Where they found each this leaf
What type of venation the leaf has
Why they used the colouring technique they chose
Where the sun was coming from and how they chose to do the shading
Anything else that was interesting about the process of drawing the leaf

Reflection

Engage students in a class discussion around the following questions, or Invite them to work independently to answer the following questions (also available on the Student Worksheet):

What was the best part of this lesson?
What was hardest for you in this lesson?
What did you do to overcome this difficulty?
What did you learn about plants by observing and drawing them?

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 - Picturing Plants

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