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Culminating Activity
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UNIT SUMMARY

Unit Title:

Japanese Paper-Mache Gardens

Unit Author:

Marguerite Janiszyn, Teacher, New England Kurn Hattin Homes

Grade Level: 4-5

Unit Overview:
Students will learn the differences between Japanese and Western style gardens and the design of a traditional Japanese garden. They will create their own minature gardens using paper-mache and other objects. This lesson plan is loosely based on the mini-unit by Alice Trageser but involves no sand. Students will learn how to use the medium of paper-mache clay, how to paint with highlights and shadows to add depth to their gardens, and the concept of realistic proportions. Traditional Japanese structures will be made out of clay and/or other materials such as tooth-picks. Since this is a team project, students will also learn cooperation, how to work togethr, and the importance of doing your share of the work.

Essential Questions:
What is a Japanese garden? How is it different from our [Western style] gardens? How do they reflect the Japanese way of thinking?

Culminating Task:
Most students have no idea what a Japanese garden is. This lesson plan will teach students what a Japanese garden is and how it differs from the Western-style garden. It will also teach them how Japanese gardens reflect the elements of traditional Japanese aesthetics, or what they consider beautiful. They will learn that the Japanese garden is not just about growing things, but about a people with a different way of looking at the world.  

Vermont Standards

Vital Results:
4.3: Students demonstrate understanding of the cultural expressions that are characteristic of particular groups.
3.10: Students perform effectively on teams that set and achieve goals, conduct investigations, solve problems, and create solutions (e.g., by using consensus-building and cooperation to work toward group decisions.)
 
Fields of Knowledge:
5.28:

Students use are forms to define and solve artistic problems with insight, reason and technical proficiency.  Evidenced when students:

  • (aa) Communicate at a basic level in dance, music, theatre and visual arts.
5.29: Students use the elements and principles of two and three dimensional design in the visual arts, including line, color, shape and texture, and in creating, viewing and critiquing.
5.24: Students solve visual, spatial, kinesthetic, aural and other problems in the arts.
5.30: Students use a variety of visual arts media (e.g., clay, tempra, watercolor, paper-mache, animation, computer-aided design, video) to show an understanding of the different properties each possesses.

 

Time to Complete Unit:  six 45-minute classes

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