Urban Habitats: Skyscrapers for our Animal Friends …...Urban Habitats: Skyscrapers for our Animal Friends Urban Habitats: Skyscrapers for our Animal Friends Project Overview Project

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Urban Habitats: Skyscrapers for our Animal FriendsUrban Habitats: Skyscrapers for our Animal FriendsUrban Habitats: Skyscrapers for our Animal FriendsUrban Habitats: Skyscrapers for our Animal Friends Project OverviewProject OverviewProject OverviewProject Overview

Skyscrapers are a common element in the urban landscape of New York City. What if these soaring buildings existed in the jungle, the arctic, and the rainforest, and housed the animals native to these habitats? After an in-depth study of these ecosystems, students designed and built skyscrapers for these environments and the animals that live there.

Essential Question:Essential Question:Essential Question:Essential Question:

How do habitats meet the needs of the people and animals that live there?

Artistic Goals: Artistic Goals: Artistic Goals: Artistic Goals:

1. Students will learn what an architect does. 2. Students will be able to form architectural structures with shapes and forms. 3. Students will be able to form structures with cardboard, paper, and found materials.

Curricular Goals:Curricular Goals:Curricular Goals:Curricular Goals:

1. Students will be able to articulate characteristics of an urban environment, specifically skyscrapers. 2. Students will be able to identify characteristics of the jungle, the arctic, and/or the rainforest. 3. Students will be able to identify which characteristics of a habitat are necessary to sustain life.

National Content Standards Addressed:National Content Standards Addressed:National Content Standards Addressed:National Content Standards Addressed:

Visual Arts K-4.1: Understanding and Applying Media, Techniques, and Processes

• Students describe how different materials, techniques, and processes cause different responses.

• Students use different media, techniques, and processes to communicate ideas, experiences, and stories.

Visual Arts K-4.2: Using Knowledge of Structures and Functions:

• Students know the differences among visual characteristics and purposes of art in order to convey ideas.

• Students describe how different expressive features and organizational principles cause different responses.

Life Science K-4.3: As a result of activities, all students should develop understanding of

• The characteristics of organisms; Life cycles of organisms; Organisms and environments. =

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Part 1: Part 1: Part 1: Part 1: Shapes in ArchitectureShapes in ArchitectureShapes in ArchitectureShapes in Architecture

What do architects need to consider when building a skyscraper?

Activity 1: Shape ArchitectureActivity 1: Shape ArchitectureActivity 1: Shape ArchitectureActivity 1: Shape Architecture Students look at images of skyscrapers in class and discussed how their designs reflect the way they are used by people. They also identified the shapes they noticed when looking at the buildings. While viewing images of the Guggenheim Museum, they learned that Frank Lloyd Wright was inspired by shapes from nature when designing the the building. Inspired by these example, students then made collage buildings out of colorful paper they cut into different shapes. Recommended Time: Two 45-minute sessions Inquiry Artworks: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Materials: Construction paper, collage background paper, glue, and scissors

Part Part Part Part 2: Animals and their Habitats2: Animals and their Habitats2: Animals and their Habitats2: Animals and their Habitats

Activity 2: Activity 2: Activity 2: Activity 2: Habitats of the WorldHabitats of the WorldHabitats of the WorldHabitats of the World As part of their science curriculum, students broke into groups and studied the animals of different types of natural habitats, including the jungle, the rainforest, and the arctic. While learning about each of these environments, they worked together to consider what animals need in each of these places in order to be happy and healthy.

ActivitActivitActivitActivity 3: Animals in the Cityy 3: Animals in the Cityy 3: Animals in the Cityy 3: Animals in the City Once the students were experts on the natural habitats of selected animals, their teachers and teaching artist posed an interesting question to them: What would happen if animals that were native to the rainforest or the ocean moved into an apartment in an urban skyscraper? What would they need in their homes in order for them to be comfortable? In small groups, students selected an animal and sketched out a plan for the skyscraper they would build for that animal. They also experimented with blocks to help them think about possible building designs. Recommended Time: Two 45-minute sessions Materials: Pencils and paper

Part Part Part Part 3: Building Skyscrapers for Animals3: Building Skyscrapers for Animals3: Building Skyscrapers for Animals3: Building Skyscrapers for Animals

How does a built habitat meet the needs of those who live there?

ActActActActivity ivity ivity ivity 4444: Animal Skyscraper Construction: Animal Skyscraper Construction: Animal Skyscraper Construction: Animal Skyscraper Construction Within their small groups, students began to collaboratively construct the basic shapes of their skyscrapers, using cardboard boxes and tubes and other recycled materials. They collected photographs of their group’s biome to remind them of the elements they would need to include for the animal inhabitants to be happy. To construct the buildings, students learned how to use tape to hold the pieces together in a way that would keep their buildings sturdy.


The buildings grew to be as tall as the students themselves! Recommended Time: Two 45-minute sessions Materials: Cardboard boxes, tubes, sheets of paper, and tape

Activity 5: Color MixingActivity 5: Color MixingActivity 5: Color MixingActivity 5: Color Mixing In order to familiarize the second graders with paint, the teaching artist planned one session as an introduction to basic painting techniques. First, students learned how to hold their brushes and experimented with making different types of brushstrokes, being careful not to get too much paint on their brushes at one time. Afterward, students were given photographs of the jungle, the arctic, or the rainforest, and were given the challenge of mixing a color that they saw in the pictures of their group’s biome, so that they could use that shade when painting their skyscrapers. Recommended time: One to two 45 minute class sessions Materials: Paint, brushes, containers of water, heavy paper, and photos of biomes

Activity Activity Activity Activity 6666: Painting: Painting: Painting: Painting Once the buildings were constructed, they were ready to be painted, so that students could add elements that would reflect the needs of their chosen animals. While looking at Georgia O’Keefe’s Abstraction, students also thought about how O’Keefe moved her brush and where they might use similar marks on their structures. After spending two class sessions painting their skyscrapers, students shared with one another how the colors they chose and the shapes of the building overall reflect their animal’s habitat. Recommended Time: Two 45-minute sessions Inquiry Artwork: O’Keefe, Abstraction Materials: Cardboard skyscrapers from previous lessons, acrylic paint, and brushes

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ResourcesResourcesResourcesResources

Images:Images:Images:Images:

“Guggenheim Images.” Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, http://www.guggenheim.org/newyork/ about/guggenheim-images “Past Exhibitions: The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1860-1989.” Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/exhibitions/past/exhibit/2716 Media and Techniques:Media and Techniques:Media and Techniques:Media and Techniques:

Beal, Nancy, Gloria Bley Miller, and Lilyan Aloma. The Art of Teaching Art to Children: In School and at Home. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2001. Corwin, Lena. Printing by Hand: A Modern Guide to Printing with Handmade Stamps, Stencils, and Silk Screens. New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2008. Woods, Louise. The Printmaking Handbook: The Complete Guide to the Latest Techniques,Tools, and Materials. Edison: Chartwell Books, 2008. Curricular Resources:Curricular Resources:Curricular Resources:Curricular Resources:

“Biomes of the World.” Teachers First, http://www.teachersfirst.com/lessons/biomes/biomes.html

Curlee, Lynn. Skyscraper. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2007.

Introducing Habitats series. New York: Crabtree Publishing Company. Macaulay, David. Building Big. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000.

Relf, Patricia, Joanna Cole, and Nancy W. Stevenson. Scholastic's The Magic School Bus Hops Home: A Book About Animal Habitats. New York: Scholastic, 1995. “745 Biome Lesson Plans Reviewed by Teachers.” Lesson Planet, http://www.lessonplanet.com/ search?keywords=biome&media=lesson


Sample Inquiry PlansSample Inquiry PlansSample Inquiry PlansSample Inquiry Plans

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Photograph by David Heald © The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Photograph by David Heald © The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Photograph by David Heald © The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Photograph by David Heald © The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York.

Inquiry Script: • What do you notice?

• What shapes do you see in this building?

• This building is the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and its architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, was inspired by nature when he created it. Do any of the shapes you mentioned remind you of anything you’ve seen in nature before? Which parts?

• What other shapes can you think of that you’ve seen in nature? Would you add that shape to this building if you were the architect? Why or why not?

To share more images of the Guggenheim Museum with students, visit:

www.guggenheim.org/newwww.guggenheim.org/newwww.guggenheim.org/newwww.guggenheim.org/new----york/aboutyork/aboutyork/aboutyork/about----us/us/us/us/ and click on “Guggenheim Images.”


Georgia O’Keefe, Abstraction, 1917. Watercolor on paper, 40 x 27 cm. Collection of Gerald and Kathleen Peters, Courtesy Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico @ Georgia O’Keefe Museum, Santa Fe

Inquiry Script: • What do you notice?

• Choose an area of this painting that is particularly interesting to you. What shapes, lines, or colors do you notice?

• What do you think the artist had to do with her brush in order to get those kinds of marks on the paper?

• Try drawing your selected area in your sketchbook with a pencil. How does the scene look different in pencil than it does in paint? Why is that?

Documents

Urban Habitats: Skyscrapers for our Animal Friends …...Urban Habitats: Skyscrapers for our Animal Friends Urban Habitats: Skyscrapers for our Animal Friends Project Overview Project