Worksheet Grade 1 Art & Music
Big Letters for Peppermint Court's Sink Signs
A grade 1 art worksheet on lettering and color contrast where students draw a fat-letter water sign for the classroom sink and give one reason for it.
Objectives
- Students will letter one word in thick, tall letters that can be read from across a room.
- Students will choose a color pair that stands out and explain their choice.
- Students will state an opinion about saving water and give one reason for it.
Vocabulary
Key words: letter, sign, thick, reason
Teacher overview
A sign works only if it can be read from a distance, so lettering is a design skill that can be checked on the spot. This worksheet has first graders run that check twice. Students letter the same word in fat letters and in thin letters, then step back and decide which one still works, and they choose between a low-contrast color pair and a high-contrast one for the sign that will hang above the classroom sink at their school on Peppermint Court.
Print the page with two boxes at the top, one large and one small, a strip for the color choice, and space at the bottom for the opinion and reason. The step-back test in item 3 is worth doing as a whole class rather than individually, since legibility is hard to judge from a seat. Have everyone stand, hold their pages toward the front, and walk back together on your count.
Items 7 and 8 are the graded pair. A first grader meets the opinion standard by stating a position and supplying one reason, so accept a reason as plain as keeping water for later, and scribe for students who dictate. The finished pages are meant to be hung, so leave time to tape a few above the sink before the class moves on.
Student Worksheet
Read each step with your teacher. Then do it.
- Write the word SAVE in the big box. Make the letters fat and tall.
- Write the word SAVE again in the small box. Make the letters thin.
- Hold your page up. Walk back three big steps. Which word can you still read? Write big or small.
- A sign needs two colors that do not look alike. Circle the better pair: yellow on white, or black on white.
- Color the letters in your big box with the pair you circled.
- Draw one fat blue drop next to your big word.
- Your sign will hang by the sink. Should we turn the tap off while we scrub? Write yes or no.
- Write one reason. Start like this: I think this because ___.
- Draw a line all the way around your sign. Leave one thumb of space.
- People made water better in these ways: they dug wells, they laid pipes, and they fixed leaks. Pick one. Write it or draw it.
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Answer Key
- Answer: the word SAVE in thick, tall letters filling the big box. The strokes should be wide enough to color inside, and all four letters should sit on the same line.
- Answer: the word SAVE in thin, small letters inside the small box. This copy is meant to be hard to read from a distance, so a cramped or faint version is correct here.
- Answer: big. Thick strokes stay visible from across a room while thin ones blur together, which is why signs use heavy letters.
- Answer: black on white. Yellow on white is two light colors that blend, while black on white is a dark color on a light one and stands apart at a distance.
- Answer: black letters left on the white paper. Accept any dark color on the light background if the student explains the pair stands out.
- Answer: one wide blue drop drawn beside the big word. The drop should be simple enough to read at the same distance as the letters.
- Answer: yes. Accept no if item 8 supplies a real reason, since the standard asks for a stated opinion with support rather than one required position.
- Answer: one reason for the opinion, such as saving water for later or keeping the sink from running over. Written or dictated reasons both count.
- Answer: a border drawn about a thumb's width outside the letters. The space keeps the words from crowding the edge, which is what sign makers call leaving a margin.
- Answer: one of the three choices, dug wells, laid pipes, or fixed leaks, written or drawn. A drawing of a pipe or a bucket counts as long as the student can name it aloud.
Differentiation
Support
Print the big box with dotted outlines of the four letters so students trace the thick strokes rather than inventing them. Do the step-back test with a partner who reports what they can see. For item 8, offer two spoken reasons and let the student pick one and copy it.
Extension
Ask students to letter a second sign for a different spot in the school, such as the drinking fountain or the art room sink, choosing a word other than SAVE and explaining in one sentence why that word fits that spot. Some students can test three color pairs and rank them from easiest to hardest to read.
ELL supports
Say each letter name aloud while modeling the thick strokes, and let students trace the shapes in the air before writing. Provide the color pairs as printed swatches so item 4 can be answered by looking rather than by reading. Accept the reason in item 8 dictated in a student's home language, then scribe a short English version beneath it.