Classroom activity Grade 1 Art & Music
Inkberry School's Dry Summer Water Art Gallery Walk
A 35-minute grade 1 activity where students draw one way their school could use less water in a dry summer, then leave notice cards at a gallery walk.
Objectives
- Students will draw one change their school could make to use less water.
- Students will look closely at classmates' drawings and name what they see.
- Students will write or dictate one reason for the picture they pick.
Vocabulary
Key words: gallery, notice, choose, reason
Teacher overview
A gallery walk asks students to read classmates' drawings closely rather than glance at them, and the notice card is what slows the looking down. This is a whole-class activity in two halves: every student first draws one change the school could make during a dry summer, and then the class walks the room in pairs leaving a card under three pictures they would pick. The made-up town of Inkberry supplies the reason for choosing at all, since its well runs low in a dry August and the school cannot keep doing everything it usually does with water.
Tape the drawings at knee-to-shoulder height along one wall or across two tables, spaced far enough apart that two pairs can stand at different pictures without crowding. The card requirement does the teaching, because students cannot leave a card without naming what they see in someone else's drawing and saying why that choice is worth making while the town's water is short.
Activity Directions
- Before the activity, post the notice card frame on chart paper where the whole room can see it: "I pick ___ because ___." Cut the index cards and set out the crayons.
- Gather the class and read the situation aloud: "The town of Inkberry had a dry summer. The well is low. Our school must use less water for a while. What should we change?" Take three answers without writing them down yet.
- Post four choices on chart paper and read each one twice: turn the tap off while scrubbing hands, water the class plants with water left in drinking cups, sweep the walk instead of spraying it, and tell the office about a dripping faucet.
- Give each student a half sheet and have them draw one of the four choices, large and clear, with no words on the front. Set a five-minute warning and remind students that a picture at a gallery has to be read from a step away, so shapes should be big.
- Collect the drawings and tape them around the room in a loop while students clear their tables. Give each student three half cards and a pencil.
- Send students out in pairs, starting at spaced-out points in the loop so no two pairs begin at the same picture. Partners look at a drawing, take turns saying "I notice ___," and then decide together whether this is one of their three picks.
- When a pair picks a drawing, each partner writes or dictates a card using the posted frame and leaves it face up under that picture. Circulate and scribe for students who dictate.
- End the walk when every student has left all three cards, which usually takes about eight minutes. Ring a bell and have students return to their own drawing to read the cards left under it.
- Debrief with two questions: "Which choice got the most cards, and why do you think that one got so many?" and "Which choice would be hardest for our class to keep doing all month?" Record both answers on the chart paper and keep it up for the week.
Student Handout
Print or copy these two lines onto each half card, or write them on the board for students to copy:
- I notice ___ in this picture.
- I pick ___ because ___.
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Differentiation
Support
Offer a choice of two of the four options rather than all four, and provide a lightly drawn outline of each so the student colors and completes rather than starts from a blank sheet. Pair students who need scribing with an adult on the walk, and let them leave one card instead of three.
Extension
Ask students to draw a fifth choice of their own that is not on the chart and defend it on their card, or to sort the cards left under their drawing into reasons that talk about saving water and reasons that talk about the picture itself. Some students can count the cards under each choice and report the totals during the debrief.
ELL supports
Say each of the four choices while acting it out, and leave a small sketch beside each line on the chart. Give the frame with picture cues at the blanks so students can point rather than read. Accept cards dictated in a student's home language, and scribe a short English version underneath while the student watches.
Extensions
Keep the winning choice as a class rule for two weeks and post the drawing that received the most cards beside the sink as the reminder. Reading the debrief chart again at the end of those two weeks, and asking whether the rule was easy or hard to keep, gives the activity a second turn without any new materials.