Submitted by
Amanda Laird, a teacher at
Oakley Elementary School
Union City, GA (Fulton County Schools)

Grades
k-5

Subject
Art

Overview
As an art class, we are constantly drawing from observation in our sketchbooks to become better observers, artists, and planners. I love to take my students outside and draw students on the playground, sketch the plants around the school, and many other nature-related items! I have recently gotten interested in building a window farm at my teeny apartment in Atlanta, and thought how great for my students to experience this as well! I would incorporate the growing process into our science portion of my lessons, but also use the final product for students to observe and draw. What a great combination of science and art!

Learning Outcomes
I believe children are not gaining the “back to the basics” skills such as farming and would love for them to gain this knowledge in my classroom. What a fun way to learn about it through art, too! I would incorporate the science and facts about plants and the growth cycle into my lesson as well.

Assessments
Because I have an art class, I love to have students do creative assessments! I was thinking our assessment for this project would be to make a flipbook showing the growth process of a plant. Students would change something about their drawing on each page just slightly. This also incorporates one of my favorite types of art, bookmaking. Along with the flipbook, I would have daily journal entries with various questions of the day students would answer.