Classroom activity Grade 5 Art & Music
Water Tower Paint Design Charrette: A Grade 5 Art Studio
A grade 5 art activity where students run a fast, iterative charrette to design a paint scheme that turns a town water tower into a local landmark.
Objectives
- Students will improve a design across several fast rounds instead of settling on a first idea.
- Students will choose images and colors that stand for their town on a shared landmark.
- Students will pitch a final design with one clear reason it represents the town.
Vocabulary
Key words: charrette, landmark, iteration, silhouette
Teacher overview
A charrette is a short, fast burst of design work where people sketch, share, and improve ideas in quick rounds. This whole-class activity puts students in a charrette to repaint the water tower of Brightwater, a fictional town, so it becomes a landmark neighbors recognize from far away. The activity teaches the concept directly: students start alone, then merge into pairs, then into groups of four, and each merge forces them to keep the strongest ideas and drop the rest, which is how real design teams sharpen a landmark that has to read as a whole town's symbol rather than one person's picture. Because a water tower stands high above every roof, students also learn to design for a bold silhouette that works at a distance.
Activity Directions
Set the scene: the town of Brightwater is going to repaint its water tower, the tallest thing for miles, and it wants a design that says "this is our town" to anyone driving by. Explain that a water tower is part of how a town stores and delivers its water, and that many towns turn theirs into a painted landmark.
Explain the charrette rule before starting: ideas will grow in rounds, and each round the group keeps only the strongest parts. Give each student a printed water tower outline.
Round 1, solo (5 min): Each student sketches one quick paint idea on their outline. Remind them this is fast and rough, not finished art.
Round 2, pairs (8 min): Students pair up, compare their two sketches, and draw one combined design that keeps the best element from each. They must agree on what to drop.
Round 3, groups of four (12 min): Two pairs join. Each group of four picks one design direction and refines it into a fuller version with colors and a bold silhouette that reads from a distance.
Gallery setup (5 min): Groups tape their refined designs around the room, with the printed outline visible so viewers can imagine it on the tower.
Pitch round (12 min): Each group gives a 30-second pitch that states one opinion, "our design best represents Brightwater," and gives one reason tied to a specific image or color choice.
Town vote (8 min): Give each student three sticky dots. Students walk the gallery once and place dots on the designs they think best represent the town, but not on their own group's design. The activity ends once every design has been visited and voted on.
Debrief (remaining time): Gather the class to discuss the two designs with the most dots and how the ideas changed across the rounds.
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Answer Key
Debrief question: "How did your design change from your first solo sketch to your group's final version, and what did you drop along the way?" Answer: Answers will vary, but a strong response names a specific element that was added or cut during a merge round and explains why the group kept the stronger idea, showing that iteration improved the design rather than just combining everything.
Debrief question: "Why does a water tower design need a bold silhouette instead of small, fine details?" Answer: A water tower stands high and is seen mostly from far away, so a big, simple shape and strong colors read clearly at a distance, while tiny details disappear and make the landmark hard to recognize.
Debrief question: "What makes a painted water tower a landmark for a town rather than just decoration?" Answer: A landmark stands for the place, so a strong design uses images or colors that mean something to the town, such as a local crop, animal, or symbol, which helps neighbors and travelers recognize the town by its tower.
Differentiation
Support
Give students a short menu of Brightwater symbols to choose from, such as a river, a farm field, and a heron, so they combine known images rather than inventing from nothing. Let them keep working with the same partner through the group round.
Extension
Ask a group to design a second, night version of their tower with lights, and explain in a sentence or two which parts of the daytime design they simplified so it would still read after dark.
ELL supports
Provide the symbol menu as picture-and-word cards, in the student's home language alongside English where possible. Allow students to pitch with a rehearsed sentence frame: "Our design shows ___, because Brightwater is known for ___."
Extensions
Find photos of real painted water towers from towns near you or across your state, and have the class name the local symbol each one uses and what it tells a traveler about that place.