Grade Levels: 3rd

  Subject: Language Arts, Art, & Technology

  Learner Outcomes:

1. Given the primary colors in finger paints, the students will be able to make the secondary colors.
2. The students will read Dr. Seuss' book: My Many Colored Days.
3. The students will go to http://www.randomhouse.com/seussville/to explore and construct pages to their own version of Dr. Seuss' book: My Many Colored Days
4. Given various color designs and paintings the students will decide what mood it creates in them.
5. The students will list adjectives that describes their feelings.

Duration of Lesson: 3 (15 minutes period) and 1 (45 minutes period)

Materials:

finger paints & paper, transparencies of various color illustrations, transparencies of scanned pictures, laminator & film, spiral notebook maker and spirals

Technology Tools/courseware:

computer, internet, printer, overhead. scanner, duplicator

•  The students will need to spend some time experimenting with color through the media of finger paints.
•  The teacher should have many Dr. Seuss books on hand for students to read.
•  The computer lab will be reserved for a 45 minute session to explore the My Many Colored Days web site (http://www.randomhouse.com/seussville/)

Making accordion books information is found on the web.

Session 1:  one (15 minutes)

1. Each student will be given a piece of finger painting paper, water, and three small cups of the primary color finger paints (blue, yellow, and red).
2. The students will apply a wash of water to the paper.
3. The students will experiment with three primary colors to see what secondary colors result.
4. The wet pictures will be dried.
5. All messes will be cleaned up.

Session 2:  one (15 minutes)

1. Students will view overhead pictures and discuss the moods they create.
2. Ask the students what these pictures mean to them.
3. Create a word list of their feels about the pictures.
4. Next the students' finger paint pictures will shared and discussed. How do they make you feel?
5. Make a word list to describe their feelings.

Session 3:  one (15 minutes)

1. Teacher states, "This book, My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss, was published after his death. This book is about colors and how they describe our feelings & moods.  The illustrations, at Dr. Seuss' request, were drawn by another artist so that they would show what others are feeling. See if you like this beautiful, simple rhyme of what someone feels." Now read the book to the class.
2. Review the students' word lists describing the overhead pictures and finger paintings.

Session 4:  two (45 minutes)

1. The students will visit  the computer lab and learn how to get to the Seuss Website.(http://www.randomhouse.com/seussville/).
2. At the web site, students follow this procedure:
• Click "Playground"
• Click "Print & Play Activities"
• Scroll down to My Many Colored Days Print & Play
These are the choices:
• Draw Many Colored Wax Pictures
• Bake Many Colored Cookies
• Many Colored Gift Wraps
• Play a Many Colored Games
3. Give the students a pattern sentence to fill out such as "Some days I feel..." or "On (color word) days I feel (something that rhymes with the color),
4. The students must make an illustration for each page in their book.
5. The students will decide on the title, create all rhymes and illustrations for the book.
6. The teacher will laminate their pages and use the spiral maker to join the pages into a spiral notebook format.
7. Some students may choose to use the accordion fold book method

Modifications:

• Our "special needs" students will be paired with more able student helpers.
• All students will have access to the computers because our lab is a "barrier free" environment.

Enrichment Activities:

More capable students may want to organize a "book signing event" and take orders for more books to be published. Nominal fees would be charged for the book publishing depending on how many books are ordered. They may want to have refreshments including cookies from the web site. Bake Many Colored Cookies.  Students will really get into this idea and teacher will be the judge of how far to carry this idea.

Evaluation/Assessment:

Our Many Colored Days Rubric

West Virginia IGO:

General Fine Arts: 3.4; 3.25; 3.29
Language: 3.1; 3.38; 3.46; 3.5

National Standards:
Language Arts:

1.  Prewriting: Uses prewriting strategies to plan written work (e.g., uses graphic organizers, story maps, and webs; groups related ideas; takes notes; brainstorms ideas; organizes information according to type and purpose of writing)

2.  Drafting and Revising: Uses strategies to draft and revise written work (e.g., elaborates on a central idea; writes with attention to audience, word choice, sentence variation; uses paragraphs to develop separate ideas; produces multiple drafts)
 

Visual Arts:

1.  Selects prospective ideas (e.g., formulated thoughts, opinions, concepts) for works of art
2.  Knows how subject matter, symbols, and ideas are used to communicate meaning

Technology:

1. Uses a word processor to edit, copy, move, save, and print text with some formatting (e.g., centering lines, using tabs, forming paragraphs)
2.  Makes back-up copies of stored data, such as text, programs, and databases

References:

1. My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss
2. http://www.randomhouse.com/seussville/
3. http://www.teachervision.com/lesson-plans/lesson-5411.html

Author:
Roianne Hackett
Gail Poling
Bonne Riffle

Union Elementary School, Upshur Co.
 
 

Overview

Lesson 1

Lesson 2

Lesson 3

Lesson 4

Lesson 5