The Best Day-Silhouette Lesson Plan

Instructor: Krystyn Satko
Title: The Best Day
Grade Level: 5th

Brief history: Paper cutting has been around since the 6th century. It originated with the Chinese who did paper cutting on red paper using images from the Chinese zodiac. Later, the French starting cutting silhouettes to entertain royalty. They are still popular today, though a little more rare than they used to be.

Standards: PA
9.1.5 A, C, E H, J
9.2.5 A, G
NETS
1.C
2.C

Goals: To create a silhouette that shows a point in time when the student felt happiest.

Objectives: Students will:
1. Be able to create a silhouette image using collage paper they painted.
2. Use painted pieces to make a collage.
3. Think about a happy day and turn it into a silhouette.

Requirements: create a silhouette using parts of the newspaper, paint, glue, and scissors.

Resources/Materials/Visual Aids:
• Exemplar of silhouette image
• Demonstration by teacher

Materials/Supplies:
• Newspaper
• Acrylic paint
• Trays for paint
• Scissors
• Glue
• Paper

Teacher Preparation: Teacher will:
• Have students bring in a picture to use as reference
• Have newspapers with many sections out and ready to use
• Have magazines ready to use for reference also
• Have paint ready
• Show exemplar of image to students

Introduction: Open discussion about happy occasions for the students. Have students thinking about things they like to do, either by themselves or with friends and family. What about these activities make them such a happy time.

Directions:
1. Sketch out image on plain white paper.
2. Think about the colors to use.
3. Paint parts of the newspaper that illustrate the feeling of the day.
4. Cut up paper into small pieces.
5. Glue pieces onto white paper.
6. Repeat until the desired effect is achieved.
7. Title you piece.

Closure: Students will scan and post silhouette images of their best day. Teacher will then direct the conversation to see where else students find silhouettes, or have seen silhouettes.

Critique/Evaluation/Assessment: When silhouettes are online, students will talk about the process of making the images, and any difficulties they encountered. They can also talk about why they chose the day they did to illustrate, and what made that day special to them.

Extensions: If students finish early:
1. Students can sketch out a different silhouette idea of their choice.
2. Students can look through books/examples of other silhouette images.

Time Allotment:
• 10 minutes-open discussion of good days/happy times
• 5 minutes-demonstration
• 30 minutes-work time
• 45 minutes-work time in second class

Vocabulary: Collage, silhouette Safety Concerns: careful with scissors.

Bibliography/References:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papercutting -History of Papercutting on Wikipedia
2. http://delicious.com/junejulian/Fall08_ArtEdBlogs -Examples of similar work
3. http://www.pde.state.pa.us/stateboard_ed/lib/stateboard_ed/pdfarts.pdf -PA Education Standards
4.http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_T_Standards_Final.pdf
-NETS Technology standards

5. http://www.eric-carle.com/slideshow_paint.html -Eric Carle showing how he makes his paper for collage-work
6. http://www.michaelpennphotography.com/ -more examples of silhouette work
7. http://silhouettemasterpiecetheatre.com/ -examples of silhouette work with reverse silhouette