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Classroom activity Kindergarten Art & Music

Ironweed Row Storm Drain Sign: A Kindergarten Print Station

A 45-minute kindergarten art rotation where children print round drain covers with tube ends, sort ten picture cards into two icon boxes, and draw the fish symbol.

Objectives

  1. Students will print a round shape by pressing a paint-loaded tube ring onto card stock.
  2. Students will sort ten picture cards into two categories and count how many are in each.
  3. Students will draw a simple fish symbol that tells people what lives at the end of the pipe.

Vocabulary

Storm drain
A storm drain is the grate at the edge of a street that swallows rainwater and sends it through pipes to the nearest creek or river. That water is usually not treated, so only rain belongs down the drain.

Also: symbol, print, sort

Teacher overview

The class is designing the small metal sign that will be fixed beside the storm drains along Ironweed Row. The sign has three parts, and each part gets its own station: a row of printed round drain covers, a set of picture icons split into what may go down and what may not, and a fish symbol showing where the pipe ends. Groups of six rotate through all three stations, so the sign gets built the way a real design job is built, in pieces that are assembled afterward.

The sorting station is where the design thinking happens. Children decide which pictures earn a place on the yes half of the sign, which is a designer's judgment about what a viewer needs to know.

Cut the tube rings and prepare one set of ten picture cards per group ahead of time. Simple pencil sketches on index cards work as well as printed clip art.

Activity Directions

  1. Before class, set three stations. Station One holds gray paint trays, tube rings, black markers, and a long strip of card stock. Station Two holds one set of ten picture cards and two labeled boxes per group. Station Three holds white card stock and crayons.
  2. Gather the class and read aloud: "Rain runs down the street. It goes through a hole at the curb called a storm drain. That water goes to the creek. Fish live in the creek. The water does not get cleaned first." Say the sign's job plainly, which is to tell people what may go down that hole.
  3. Split the class into three groups of about six. Each group starts at a different station and spends 11 minutes there before rotating on your signal.
  4. Station One, printing. Each child presses a tube ring into the gray paint, then prints three round covers in a row on the card stock strip. After the prints dry a moment, each child adds four straight black bars across one of their circles with the marker, which turns the circle into a grate.
  5. Station Two, sorting. The group spreads out the ten cards. Four cards show rain, melted snow, hail, and rain from a roof downspout. Six cards show leaves, paint, soda, oil, grass clippings, and gum. Children put the four water cards in the yes box and the six others in the no box, then count each box aloud.
  6. Station Three, the symbol. Each child draws one fish on white card stock, big and simple, with no small details. Explain the reason as they draw: a symbol has to be read from a moving car, so a fat fish shape works and a detailed one does not.
  7. The rotation ends when every group has finished all three stations. Glue the best prints, the two sorted card groups, and one fish onto a single poster board while the class watches.
  8. Bring the class to the finished sign for the debrief and the handout questions. Ask the two closing questions aloud: why the fish belongs on a sign about a street drain, and what would happen to the creek if the paint card went in the yes box.
Ironweed Row Storm Drain Sign: A Kindergarten Print Station — Kindergarten Art & Music
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

Answer with your cards and your prints in front of you.

  1. Your group has 10 cards. Four of them show rain, melted snow, hail, and rain from a roof downspout. Put those four in the yes box. How many cards are in the yes box?
  2. The other six cards show leaves, paint, soda, oil, grass clippings, and gum. Put those in the no box. How many cards are in the no box?
  3. The yes box holds 4 cards and the no box holds 6 cards. Which box has more cards?
  4. Find the paint card. Does paint belong in the yes box or the no box?
  5. You printed 3 round covers at Station One. How many covers did you print?
  6. A fish is drawn on the sign. What does the fish tell a person walking by?

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

Answer Key
  1. Answer: 4 cards. Rain, melted snow, hail, and rain from a roof downspout all fell from the sky, and counting them one at a time gives four.
  2. Answer: 6 cards. Leaves, paint, soda, oil, grass clippings, and gum are the six that do not belong in the drain.
  3. Answer: the no box. Matching each yes card to a no card leaves two no cards with no partner, so six is more than four.
  4. Answer: the no box. Paint poured into a street drain travels to the creek without being cleaned, so it never belongs in the yes group.
  5. Answer: 3 covers. Every child at Station One printed three rings in a row, so the count is three.
  6. Answer: Fish live where the water goes. The symbol tells a person that whatever they pour into the drain reaches a creek where animals live.

Differentiation

Support (below grade level)

Give the child a set of six cards instead of ten, keeping two water cards and four others, so the sorting stays inside a comfortable count. At the print station, hold the tube ring together with the child for the first press. Pre-draw a fat oval on the card stock at Station Three so the fish only needs a tail and an eye.

Extension (above grade level)

Ask the child to invent a seventh card for the no box, draw it, and say why it belongs there. These children can also count how many cards would be in each box if two more water cards were added, and can letter the word yes and the word no on the two halves of the finished sign.

ELL supports

Every station has a physical action that carries meaning without English: pressing, sorting into two boxes, and drawing. Teach four words at the objects themselves, which are drain, fish, yes, and no, and use a thumb up and a thumb down alongside the two boxes. Let newcomers answer handout items 3, 4, and 6 by pointing.

Extensions

Walk the class to the nearest curb drain and hold the finished sign beside it so children see the scale of the real thing. Bring extra adults and keep children on the sidewalk, away from traffic. If the school allows it, ask the custodian or a city crew member whether a copy of the sign can stay posted for a week. Keep the ten cards in a center for free-choice sorting through the rest of the unit.