Zhang Dali, Demolition (Ping’an Avenue Beijing). C-Print, 35 3/8 x 23 5/8 inches. Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University.
Feodor Zakharov, View of the Shimmering Sea from Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Oil on canvas, 32 x 45 inches. Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University.
English Language Arts
Kindergarten
4: America: Symbols and Celebrations
2-3 30-minute lessons
text elements
How will asking questions help us learn more about celebrations and holidays?
I can explain what Earth Day is for.
I can explain what it means to recycle, reuse, and reduce.
Read “Earth Day” (poem) with kids several times. Point out that we read left to right. At the end of a few of the lines ask where to go now. Discuss how the lines end (period or exclamation). Discuss the purpose of the period and exclamation point. Find and circle the rhyming words.
Discuss the differences between recycling, reusing, and reducing:
Use VTS to discuss the oil painting View of the Shimmering Sea from Woods Hole, Massachusetts by Feodor Zakharov. Ask the group a few open ended questions:
As facilitator, paraphrase comments neutrally. Point at the area being discussed without touching! Link contrasting and complementary comments.
Compare the first painting with the photograph Demolition, by Zhang Dali. Discuss setting, what is made by people, what is natural, which shows more Earth care, etc.
Project the first painting onto a large piece of white paper. Have volunteers tape pieces of trash (the pieces of clean trash you have gathered) onto the white paper where the picture is projected. Ask the kids how it makes them feel after the trash has been added. Discuss what they can do with the trash: recycle, reuse, or reduce.
Give the kids a toilet paper roll and some scrap paper to create something else out of the “trash”. Can use something else instead of a toilet paper roll here.
Have the students work in small groups to create a poster promoting Earth Day. Brainstorm before they start:
Make individual copies for students and cut the lines or words apart and put them back together; identify the rhyming words by coloring over them in yellow.
Have other “clean” pieces of trash for them to reuse creatively.
Beyond Grade Level: Students will draw picture only or picture with labels for poster.
At Grade Level: At minimum poster has a title.
Below Grade Level: Students will draw picture only or picture with labels for poster.
Minute-by-minute assessment: As students are working make note of any kids having difficulty with a skill or mastering a skill.
light pieces of clean trash to tape on projection, toilet paper rolls, paper scraps
artist, reduce, reuse, recycle
Zhang Dali, Demolition (Ping’an Avenue Beijing), 1999. C-Print, 35 3/8 x 23 5/8 inches (89.9 x 60 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC, USA. Museum purchase with funds provided by The Lori and David Arthur Fund for Asian Art, 2008.10.1. © Zhang Dali. Courtesy Eli Klein Fine Art.
Feodor Zakharov, American, View of the Shimmering Sea from Woods Hole, Massachusetts, c. 1927. Oil on canvas, 32 x 45 inches (81.3 x 114.3 cm). Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC, USA. Museum purchase, 1996.6.1. Photo by Peter Paul Geoffrion.