Lesson plan Grade 2 Art & Music
Pickerel Pond Window: Layering Tissue to Show Muddy Water
Grade 2 students test which collage materials let light through, then layer tissue on clear film to show how muddy runoff dims the plants in a made-up pond.
Objectives
- Students will test collage materials at a window and sort them by how much light each one lets through.
- Students will layer tissue paper to show a clear pond and a muddy pond side by side.
- Students will explain how mud in pond water changes the light that reaches plants growing under the water.
Vocabulary
Key words: layer, overlap, see-through, silhouette, runoff, collage
Teacher overview
Pickerel Pond is a made-up pond used for this lesson. After a heavy rain, water running off a bare dirt lot beside it carries mud into the pond, and the clear water turns cloudy and brown. Plants that grow under the water need light, and cloudy water lets less of that light reach them. Students first find out which art materials let light through, and then they use what they found to build a two-sided collage on clear contact paper: the left half shows the pond on a clear day, and the right half shows the same pond after the muddy rain, with brown tissue layered over the same plants. When the finished work hangs in a window, the difference in light is something students can see rather than something they are told.
Plan for one common misconception. Many second graders assume that only clear, colorless things let light through, so during sorting they put blue or brown tissue in the same group as foil and construction paper. The window test is built to confront that idea directly, because a single sheet of blue tissue held against the glass glows with daylight. A second idea surfaces while students build: one brown layer dims the plants a little, while three brown layers dim them a great deal. That gives students a visual tool for showing a pond that is a little muddy and a pond that is very muddy, and it is the main design decision of the lesson.
Before class, cut the contact paper, bag one set of test materials per pair (plastic wrap, wax paper, one blue tissue square, four brown tissue squares, one construction paper square, and one foil square), and draw a line down the middle of each student's contact-paper sheet on the backing side. A sunny window gives the clearest results, although any bright window works.
Procedure
Read-aloud hook (6 min). Read aloud: "Pickerel Pond is a small pond in a made-up town. On sunny days you can see green plants growing under the water. One night a big rain washed mud from a dirt lot into the pond. In the morning the water was brown and cloudy." Sketch two pond outlines side by side on the board and ask what might change for the plants under the water when the water turns brown. Record ideas without correcting them yet.
Planning the light test (6 min). Hold up the seven test materials and ask how the class could find out which ones let light through. Guide the plan toward a fair test: every pair holds each material flat against the same window, looks through it at the same thing outside, and puts it in one of three groups. Write the group names on the board: "Lets light through clearly," "Lets some light through," and "Blocks the light." Ask students to predict, with a show of hands, where the blue tissue will go before anyone tests it.
Light test at the window (10 min). Pairs take turns at the windows with a material bag and the handout. For each material, one partner holds it to the glass while the other looks and writes or draws it in a column of the chart. For the last test, pairs stack three brown tissue squares and compare the stack with a single square. Remind pairs to look at a tree or a building outside and never at the sun.
Sharing and formative check (5 min). Build a class chart from pair reports. Then ask each student to hold up one finger if blue tissue belongs in the first group, two fingers for the middle group, or three fingers for the last group. The expected answer is two fingers. If more than three or four students show three fingers, send two of them back to the window with the blue square and the foil square together and ask them to describe the difference before you move on.
Modeling the layers (6 min). Under a document camera or against a window, show how layering works on contact paper. Lay a blue square over a yellow square and ask what color appears where they overlap. Place a green tissue plant shape, then put one brown square over half of it and three brown squares over the other half, and hold the sheet up to the light. Name the decision students will make: how many brown layers they will use to show how muddy their pond became, and where the trash, if they add any, will float.
Building the pond window (20 min). Each student receives a contact-paper sheet taped sticky side up. On both halves they build the same pond: blue tissue for water, green tissue plant shapes growing up from the bottom, and a yellow sun at the top. Then, on the right half only, they layer brown tissue over the water and plants. Students may also cut one construction-paper shape of trash, such as a bottle or a bag, to float on the muddy side. Point out that the paper shape will appear as a dark silhouette, because it blocks the light completely. Circulate and ask each student to hold the work to the window and tell you which half lets more light reach the plants.
Window gallery and exit questions (7 min). Seal each collage with its second sheet of contact paper and tape it to a window. Students answer the handout questions with their partner, then walk the gallery and point to one collage where the muddy side is especially dark.
Student Handout
Read aloud to the class: We will test seven things at the window. Hold each one flat on the glass. Look through it at something outside. Do not look at the sun. Then write it in one group.
Test these seven things: plastic wrap, wax paper, one blue tissue, one brown tissue, three brown tissues stacked, construction paper, and foil.
| Lets light through clearly | Lets some light through | Blocks the light |
|---|---|---|
- Which thing let the most light through?
- Name one thing that blocked all the light.
- Look at one brown tissue and at three brown tissues stacked. Which one let less light through?
- Hold up your pond window. On which side do the plants get more light?
- Finish this sentence: Mud in a pond is bad for the plants under the water because ___.
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: Plastic wrap.
Plastic wrap is the only test material students can see through clearly, so the tree or building outside looks sharp. A pair that names wax paper has probably noticed how brightly it glows; hold the two side by side and ask them whether they could read a sign through each one. - Answer: Foil or construction paper.
Accept either one. Both belong in the "Blocks the light" group, and the window behind them looks dark. - Answer: The three brown tissues stacked.
Each layer takes away some of the light, so the stack looks darker than a single square. This is the same effect students use on the muddy side of the collage. - Answer: The clear side, on the left.
The left half has no brown layers, so the most light reaches the green plants there. Accept an answer that points to the clear half if a student built the halves in the other order. - Answer: It blocks the light that the plants need to grow.
Accept any sentence that connects the mud to less light reaching the plants, such as "the water gets too dark for the plants." A sentence that says only "the water looks yucky" has not yet made the link to light, so ask the student what the brown layers did on their collage.
Differentiation
Support
Give these students a test chart with a small picture of each material already printed in the first column so they only need to place a check in one of the three groups. During building, provide pre-cut plant and sun shapes so their attention goes to the layering decision rather than to cutting. For item 5, offer two sentence choices read aloud, and let the student circle one.
Extension
Ask these students to build a third, narrow strip on the back of their sheet that shows the pond at three levels of mud, using one, two, and three brown layers, and to label the strip from lightest to darkest. They can also test one new material of their own choosing, such as a paper napkin or a plastic bag, predict its group first, and explain whether the prediction held.
ELL supports
Pre-teach see-through, some light, and blocks light by holding up plastic wrap, tissue, and foil at the window while saying each phrase, and post those three objects beside the matching column of the class chart. Provide the sentence frames "The ___ lets light through" and "The ___ blocks the light" for the sharing step. Accept item 5 as a drawing with the words plant, mud, and light labeled in English.
Extensions
Return to Pickerel Pond a week later with a third panel that shows a fix. A strip of grass and plants between a bare lot and a pond catches much of the mud before it reaches the water, which is why towns sometimes plant such strips along creeks and ponds. Students build a narrow collage that adds a green strip of tissue grass between the dirt lot and the water, then place it beside their two-sided window so the gallery tells the story in three parts: a clear pond, a muddy pond, and a pond with a grass strip protecting it.