Lesson plan Grade 1 Art & Music

Stamped Raindrop Banner for the Thimbleberry Water Crew

A 45-minute grade 1 art lesson where students print a repeating sponge-stamp border and add one fact about a water worker to a class thank-you banner.

Grade: Grade 1
Subject: Art & Music
Material: Lesson plan
Time: 45 min
Prep: Moderate prep
Materials: A long strip of butcher paper or taped-together chart paper, Kitchen sponges cut into simple drop shapes, one per pair, Shallow trays of blue and green tempera paint, Pencils with clean erasers, Paper towels and a wash bucket, Markers and sentence strips, Glue sticks, Chart paper and a marker for the job list, Scrap paper for modeling

Standards

D2.Civ.14.K-2 C3 Framework

Describe how people have tried to improve their communities over time.

How this material aligns: Students name three jobs the town water crew does to keep water running to the school, and the sentence strips on the banner describe that work as something people do to improve conditions in their community.

All materials for D2.Civ.14.K-2 →

W.1.2 Common Core ELA

Write informative/explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and provide some sense of closure.

How this material aligns: Each student writes or dictates one sentence naming a water worker and one fact about what that worker does, and the banner's shared final line supplies the closing for the finished piece.

All materials for W.1.2 →

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This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely, without attribution. Updated 2026-07-23.

Objectives

Students will print a repeating two-part pattern along a border using a sponge stamp.
Students will name three jobs the people who care for a town's water actually do.
Students will write or dictate one sentence stating a fact about a water worker.

Vocabulary

Key words: print, stamp, pattern, border

Teacher overview

Printmaking gives first graders a way to fill a large surface with even, repeating marks, which is exactly what a banner border needs. In this lesson each pair prints a two-part repeating pattern, a big sponge drop followed by a small eraser drop, along the top and bottom edges of a class banner, and then writes one sentence in the open middle naming a person who takes care of the town's water. The finished banner goes to a real audience, whether that is the school custodian, the town water office, or the crew that comes when a pipe breaks.

Cut the sponges and set the paint trays out before students arrive, since sponge cutting takes longer than it looks. Roll the banner paper out on the floor rather than on tables so every pair can reach a border without leaning across wet prints. Assign each pair a marked section of the border in advance, because two pairs printing over the same stretch is what most often ruins a class banner.

Procedure

Meet the crew (6 min): Tell the class that the town of Thimbleberry keeps a small water crew, and read aloud three of their jobs, one at a time, asking what each person needs to bring to work: the person who drives out at night to fix a broken pipe, the person at the water plant who checks the water all day, and the person who walks the street to read the water meters. Record the three jobs on chart paper. Say plainly that all three jobs matter and that people reach them in different ways, some straight from high school with training on the job, others through college.

Learn the print (9 min): Model printing on scrap paper. Press the sponge drop into the tray, press it once on the paper, then lift it straight up without sliding. Then press an eraser drop beside it. Repeat the pair three times so students see the pattern: big, small, big, small, big, small. Have the class chant the pattern aloud with you while you print, then invite two students to print the next repeat.

Print the border (18 min): Pairs go to their marked section of the banner and print the same big-small pattern along the top edge, then the bottom edge. One partner holds the paper steady while the other prints, and they swap halfway. Watch for sliding, which smears the drop into a streak, and for double-dipping without blotting, which floods the print. Pairs who finish their section early may print a second row of small drops below the first.

Write the middle (9 min): While the border dries, each student writes or dictates one sentence on a sentence strip: the name of a job from the chart and one fact about what that person does, such as "The pipe crew comes at night." Glue the strips down the open middle of the banner. Add one closing line in large letters across the end, written by two volunteers: "Thank you for our water."

Read and check (3 min): Walk the class along the banner and read four strips aloud. Read aloud: "Point to the part of the border where the big drop comes next." Students should point to the spot after a small drop. If several point to the wrong spot, chant the pattern once more together before rolling the banner up.

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Differentiation

Support

Pre-print the first three repeats of the pattern in each pair's section so students have a model to continue rather than a blank edge to start. Offer a sentence strip with the job name already written so the student only adds the fact. Students who struggle with the lift-straight-up motion can hold the sponge with two hands.

Extension

Ask students to design a three-part pattern, such as big, small, small, and print a short test strip proving it repeats correctly before adding it to the banner. Some students can write a second strip explaining what would happen in town if nobody did the job they named.

ELL supports

Teach press, lift, and pattern through the modeled print rather than through definitions, and have the class say the three words while performing each motion. Provide the sentence frame "The ___ does ___" with a picture of a truck, a meter, and a plant beside the blanks. Accept a fact dictated in a student's home language and scribe an English version beneath it.

Extensions

Send the banner to the town water office or hang it in the school entryway during the week a real water worker is invited to visit. If your district's facilities staff maintain the school's pipes and fountains, invite one of them to stand beside the banner and answer two questions the class prepares in advance.