Project Grade 6 Art & Music
Water-Wise Entrance Garden Design for Caliche Springs Middle School
A grade 6 landscape design project where teams plan a drought-tolerant school entrance garden by texture, form, and color within a fictional weekly water budget.
Objectives
- Students will select plants for a garden by texture, form, and color and justify a chosen color scheme.
- Students will draw a scale plan that groups plants with similar water needs and shows each plant at its grown width.
- Students will keep their design within a weekly water budget and express its use as a percent of the old lawn's use.
- Students will argue in a written proposal that their design meets the school's goals, using reasons and evidence.
Vocabulary
Key words: landscape design, texture, form, color scheme, hydrozone, scale plan, elevation, drought-tolerant
Teacher overview
The fictional town of Caliche Springs is in its third year of drought, and the town has asked its public buildings to replace thirsty lawns with gardens that need far less water. Caliche Springs Middle School, also fictional, will replace the lawn beside its front entrance, and its site council will choose one student design. Over five sessions, teams act as landscape designers: they choose plants for their texture, form, and color, draw a colored scale plan and a front elevation, and write a proposal. The design must stay within a weekly water budget set by the school, which is 60 gallons per week in summer compared with the old lawn's 150 gallons, both fictional figures for this project. The driving question asks how a garden can look inviting through the year while using less than half the water of the lawn it replaces.
A common misconception is that a drought-tolerant garden has to look bare, brown, or like a pile of rocks. Landscape designers make these gardens appealing with the same tools painters use, including contrast in texture, repeated forms, and a planned color scheme, and the rubric rewards teams that use those tools on purpose. Teams also learn to group plants with similar water needs into hydrozones, a real planning practice that lets one drip line serve plants that need the same amount of water. Teachers can make the printed site plan by drawing the bed described in the Project Brief on grid paper and marking the front door, the main walkway, a north arrow, and any trees or walls that cast shade; a photograph of the school's own entrance can be posted beside it.
Project Brief
Driving question: How can we design an entrance garden that looks inviting all year and uses less than half the water of the old lawn?
Scenario: In our scenario, the town of Caliche Springs has had three dry years in a row. Caliche Springs Middle School is taking out the lawn by its front door. The school's site council wants a garden that greets visitors and saves water. Your team will design one, and the council will choose a winner.
The plant list: Choose only from these plants. The widths and water amounts are fictional values for this project.
| Plant | Texture | Form | Color and season | Width when grown (feet) | Water per week in summer (gallons) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agave | Coarse | Spiky rosette | Blue-gray leaves all year | 3 | 1 |
| Yucca | Coarse | Upright spikes | Green leaves all year, white flowers in early summer | 3 | 1 |
| Blue grama grass | Fine | Low clump | Blue-green blades, tan seed heads in fall | 2 | 2 |
| Desert marigold | Fine | Low mound | Yellow flowers from spring to fall | 2 | 2 |
| Penstemon | Medium | Upright | Red or purple flowers in spring | 2 | 2 |
| Lavender | Fine | Rounded mound | Gray-green leaves, purple flowers in summer | 3 | 3 |
| Autumn sage | Medium | Rounded shrub | Red flowers from summer to fall | 3 | 3 |
| Rose bush | Medium | Upright shrub | Pink or red flowers in summer | 3 | 6 |
| Desert willow (small tree) | Medium | Vase-shaped tree | Pink flowers in summer | 10 | 8 |
Constraints set by the site council (all fictional):
- The bed is 20 feet long and 12 feet deep. Draw it on grid paper, with one square for each foot.
- Draw each plant as a circle as wide as the plant will grow. Circles may touch but may not overlap.
- Use no more than 24 plants.
- The whole garden may use no more than 60 gallons of water each week in summer. The old lawn used 150 gallons each week.
- Areas of gravel or bark mulch use no water.
- Use at least one fine, one medium, and one coarse texture.
- Pick one color scheme from the color wheel, such as analogous or complementary, and use it on purpose.
- Group plants that need the same amount of water into zones.
Final deliverable: Your team will turn in four things to the site council. They are a colored scale plan, a front elevation drawing, a palette board with color and texture swatches, and a one-page proposal. You will also give a short presentation.
Milestones
- Session 1, study the site: Look at the site plan of the entrance. Mark where the sun is strongest, where people walk, and what a visitor sees from the front door. Write three goals for your garden. Output: a marked site plan and a list of three goals.
- Session 2, build the plant palette: Choose your plants by texture, form, and color. Glue swatches or rubbings onto a palette board and label your color scheme. Fill in a water table with each plant, how many you will use, and the water each group needs. Find your total gallons per week. Then write that total as a percent of the old lawn's 150 gallons. Output: a palette board and a water table with a total and a percent.
- Session 3, draw the scale plan: On tracing paper, sketch a bubble diagram that shows where each zone goes. Then draw the scale plan on grid paper. Show each plant as a circle at its grown width, and label each water zone. Output: a pencil scale plan with labeled zones.
- Session 4, render and elevate: Color the plan in your chosen scheme. Then draw a front elevation, which shows the garden from the side as a visitor would see it. Show the heights and shapes of the plants. Output: a colored plan and a finished elevation.
- Session 5, propose and present: Write a one-page proposal to the site council. State why your garden should be chosen, and give reasons from your plan, your palette, and your water math. Present your work to the class, who will act as the council. Output: the proposal and a short presentation.
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Rubric
The water limits below are the fictional values from the Project Brief.
| Criterion | Emerging | Developing | Proficient | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Visual design | Plants are placed without a plan, and texture or color choices are not explained | The design uses some texture or color contrast, but the color scheme is not followed throughout | The design uses fine, medium, and coarse textures and follows one named color scheme across the plan and elevation | Texture, form, and color are arranged to lead the eye to the entrance, and the team explains how each choice supports that goal |
| Water budget and zones | Water table is missing, or the garden uses more than 60 gallons per week | Water table is complete but has errors, or plants with different water needs are mixed together | Weekly total is correct and no more than 60 gallons, the percent of the lawn's use is correct, and plants are grouped by water need | The design meets the budget with clear zones, and the team explains a trade-off it made, such as leaving out rose bushes so the budget can include a shade tree |
| Scale plan and elevation | Plan is not to scale, or circles do not match grown widths | Plan is mostly to scale but some circles overlap or are the wrong size | Plan is to scale with correct circle sizes, labeled zones, and a matching elevation | Plan and elevation are accurate, neat, and easy for a council member to read, with a clear legend |
| Proposal argument | Proposal describes the garden but makes no claim | Proposal makes a claim with one or two general reasons | Proposal makes a clear claim and supports it with reasons and evidence from the palette, plan, and water math | Proposal makes a clear claim, supports it with strong evidence, and connects the design to the goals the team wrote in Session 1 |
Differentiation
Support
Give teams a partly completed water table with the plant names and water amounts already filled in, so they only enter quantities, find the total, and compute the percent. Provide a bed outline already drawn to scale on grid paper and paper circle cutouts sized to each plant's grown width, so students can arrange plants by moving the circles before drawing. Offer a proposal frame with a claim sentence and three reason sentences to complete. The water figures in these supports are the same fictional values used in the Project Brief.
Extension
Ask a team to design a second version of its garden for a fictional, even stricter budget of 40 gallons per week. The team compares the two plans side by side and writes a paragraph explaining which visual qualities it kept, which it gave up, and how it used mulch, stone, or repeated forms to keep the smaller design inviting.
ELL supports
Post a visual glossary with a photo or sketch for fine, medium, and coarse textures and for rosette, mound, and upright forms. Let teams label the palette board and plan with single words and arrows. Provide sentence starters for the presentation, such as "We chose ___ because it..." and "Our garden uses ___ gallons, which is ___ percent of the lawn's water."