Lesson plan Grade 5 Art & Music

Pictogram Signs for the Willowmere Water Treatment Plant

A grade 5 art lesson where students design simple pictogram signs for the four main stages of a drinking water treatment plant tour.

Grade: Grade 5
Subject: Art & Music
Material: Lesson plan
Time: 55 min
Prep: Low prep
Materials: Square paper or card stock cut into equal panels, Pencils and erasers, Thick black markers, One or two highlighter or marker colors per group, Printed list of the four treatment stages with plain descriptions, Images of three familiar public pictograms (recycling, no food, exit) to project or print, with the words covered, Sticky notes, one per student

Standards

5-ESS3-1 NGSS

Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth's resources and environment.

How this material aligns: Each sign explains one way the community's treatment plant uses science to clean and protect its drinking water, the information about protecting a resource that this standard asks students to obtain and communicate.

All materials for 5-ESS3-1 →

W.5.2 Common Core ELA

Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.

How this material aligns: Students write a one-line explanatory caption for each pictogram that tells a visitor what that treatment stage does, conveying information about a topic clearly as this standard requires.

All materials for W.5.2 →

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This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely, without attribution. Updated 2026-07-17.

Objectives

Students will design a set of four pictograms, one for each stage of a drinking water treatment plant.
Students will use a single bold shape and high contrast so each sign reads from a distance.
Students will write a short caption that explains how each stage helps clean the water.

Vocabulary

Key words: pictogram, symbol, contrast, legend

Teacher overview

A pictogram is a small picture that stands for an idea, like the walking figure on a crosswalk sign. In this lesson, students design four pictograms for a tour of the Willowmere Water Treatment Plant, a fictional plant used for this lesson, so that visitors can follow the water from a cloudy raw state to a clean, safe drink. The design task teaches the science directly, because a student cannot draw a clear symbol for a stage until they understand what that stage actually does to the water. A helpful teaching note is that fifth graders often add too much detail, drawing tiny people, gears, and text inside one small sign; the lesson's main rule is that a pictogram should use one bold shape that a visitor can read from several steps away, so students practice removing detail rather than adding it.

Procedure

Hook (5 min): Show three familiar public pictograms with the words covered, such as a recycling symbol, a no-food symbol, and an exit-door symbol. Ask students to read each one aloud. Point out that each works because it uses one clear shape and strong contrast, not because it has many small details.

Direct instruction (12 min): Introduce the four treatment stages in plain terms: mixing, where a treatment is stirred in so tiny bits of dirt clump together; settling, where the heavy clumps sink to the bottom of a large tank; filtering, where the water passes through layers of sand and gravel; and disinfecting, where a small dose of a disinfectant kills germs before the water leaves the plant. For each stage, ask the class what single object could stand for it, and sketch one quick option on the board.

Guided practice (8 min): Design the mixing pictogram together as a class. Compare two ideas, a stirring paddle and swirling arrows, and vote on which reads faster from across the room. Add a one-line caption beneath it: "Mixing makes dirt clump together."

Independent design (22 min): Each student designs all four pictograms on equal square panels, using one bold shape per panel outlined in thick black marker and no more than two colors. Under each pictogram, students write a caption of one short sentence that explains what the stage does. Encourage students to squint at their own work, since a design that is still clear when blurry will read well on a wall.

Closure and exit ticket (8 min): Hold a quick gallery check. Students place their four panels on their desks and walk one lap past four classmates' sets. On a sticky note, each student answers: "Which classmate's pictogram was easiest to read from a step back, and what one choice made it clear?" A class is ready to move on when most notes name a specific design choice such as a bold outline or strong contrast, rather than "it looked nice."

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

Answer Key

Exit ticket look-fors: A complete answer names one classmate's specific pictogram and one concrete design choice that made it readable, such as a single large shape, a thick black outline, strong contrast between two colors, or empty space around the symbol. A weak answer gives only a general reaction with no design reason. There is no single correct pictogram for any stage; accept any symbol a student can justify, as long as it clearly stands for what that treatment stage does to the water.

Differentiation

Support

Provide a small bank of shape starters for each stage, such as a paddle, a downward arrow, a stack of layers, and a shield, so students choose and refine a starting symbol rather than inventing one from nothing. Offer a sentence frame for each caption: "This stage ___ the water."

Extension

Ask students to design a fifth panel, a legend, that arranges the four pictograms in order with a title, so the whole set works as a single wayfinding sign at the plant entrance.

ELL supports

Pair each stage word with a labeled photo or simple sketch, in the student's home language alongside English where possible. Allow captions to be short phrases, and let students explain their symbols orally before writing.

Extensions

Contact your local water utility to ask whether they offer plant tours, and compare any signs they use with the class designs. Some utilities will share photos of their real treatment stages with a class that writes to ask.