Kindergarten Book Lesson Plan

Kayla Wilson
wilso3km@dukes.jmu.edu
11/8/2014
Lesson Theme: The Importance of Helping Others
Grade Level: Kindergarten
Time: One 40 minute lesson
Lesson Overview: The students will start to recognize the relationships between colors and
feelings. They will create mixed media pieces of art that will relate to their lives and feelings by
having them draw a time when they helped someone and then having them discuss how they felt
about it. They will also be introduced to the idea that fibers such as yarn can be used in or as
pieces of art.
Visual Culture Component/relevance: This lesson will relate to the students lives through the
book Extra Yarn by Mac Bennett. This book is all about helping other people through art and
being happy by helping others. Students will identify a time when they helped someone and use
that in their art. Students will also be introduced to the concept of fiber arts and use yarn in their
pieces.
Virginia Standards of Learning:
Fine Arts:
K.5 The student will create works of art that connect to everyday life.
K.7 The student will identify and use the following in works of art:
1. Colorred, blue, yellow, green, orange, violet, brown, black, white
K.11 The student will use motor skills to create two-dimensional and three-dimensional works of
art.
K.15 The student will describe and respond to works of art.
History and Social Science:
K.2 The student will describe everyday life in the present and in the past and begin to recognize
that things change over time.
Lesson Objectives: Students will:
Identify the relationships between colors and feelings.
Use colored pencils to draw a picture of them helping someone, cut yarn and the glue it
around the picture.
Articulate what they drew and how they felt during the experience of helping someone.
Vocabulary Words for Visual Analysis:
Color The identifiable physical colorations the eye sees.
Fiber Arts Art that focuses on fibers such as yarn or cloth.
Yarn Spun thread

Helping Doing something with or for someone that is good.

Drawing Using lines to create a picture.
Historical/Cultural/Artist Information: The book Extra Yarn was illustrated by Jon Klassen.
Background information on this artist isnt really necessary, but might be good to know in case a
student asks about it.
Image Descriptions: Images from the book Extra Yarn. All Images from the book will be
shown.
These pictures are good examples of colors showing characters emotions. The
girl is colorful and happy to the very end while the man dressed all in black is
angry and bitter towards the girl. The book also clearly shows yarn and fiber
arts being used to help others.

Questioning Strategies: (to be asked after reading the book)

How do you think this girl is feeling?
Why does she feel that way?
Does helping people seem to make her happy?
Does helping people make you happy?
What colors make you happy?
What colors make you sad?

Do either of the characters feelings have to do with the colors in the book?
How does the girls knitting help the people of the town?
What is knitting?
What do people use to knit?
Lesson Procedure:
The teacher will welcome the students into the classroom and ask them to quietly go sit
on the reading carpet to be read a book.
The teacher will then read the book Extra Yarn to the entire class. This should take up no
more than 5 minutes of the class.
Then the teacher will go back through the book and ask the students to identify how the
character of the book is feeling and whether or not helping the people of the town made
her happy or not. This should also be related to the colors used within the book and the
idea of Fiber Arts should be introduced to the students. This should also not take more
than 5 minutes.
After the book reading the students will be asked to quietly return to their seats. The
teacher will then introduce the project and show the students the pre made example. The
students will be told to draw a picture of a time they helped someone and try to pick
colors based on how they felt about it. Once the drawing is finished they will glue yarn
around the edge of the paper to simulate their own box of yarn, like in the book.
The teacher will then hand out one piece of white printer paper to each student and a
pencil. Students will be asked to write their name and grade on the back of that paper,
then return their pencils. After the students return their pencils each table will be given a
pack of colored pencils and the students will be reminded to draw a picture of a time
when they helped someone.
The students will draw their pictures for approximately 15 to 20 minutes. After this time
the students will put the colored pencils back in the boxes and the teacher will collect the
boxes of markers. The teacher will then hand out scissors and glue to each table of
students. The pre-cut string will then be offered to each student so they can decide which
color they would like to use to create their box.
Students will then cut their yarn down to the proper size with scissors and then glue the
yarn around the edge of the paper. The teacher should help the students if they have
trouble with this step. Students who are more advanced should be encouraged to help
students that are having difficulty. This should take 5 minutes.
The students will then put their pieces of art on the drying rack so the glue can dry
without messing up the yarn. The students should help the teacher to put away the glue
and scissors that they just used. Any extra yarn scraps should be thrown away in the
trashcan. After this the class will come back together and will discuss together how those
helping experiences made them feel. This could continue while the students all line up to
leave and until their teacher comes to get them.
Evaluation: Students will be given either a check or nothing depending on how they meet the
criteria of the assignment. The students will be graded on:
Choosing a memory of helping someone to base the piece on
Their use of color to show how they felt while helping someone
The actual making and construction of the piece

 Being able to articulate their memory to the teacher and the rest of the class
Materials and Preparation: The teacher will need to prepare one piece of white printer paper
and a pencil per student. There will also be some scissors, glue and colored pencils set out per
table. Different colored strings of yarn will be passed out to each student individually so that
they can pick the colors themselves. The teacher should precut the yarn into smaller strands than
the amount that is bought directly from the store. The teacher should also make an example of
this project to help guide the students in the right direction.
The example provided depicts me holding a plant which is representative of my memory of
helping my mother plant in the garden when I was younger. I used bright greens, yellow and blue
to help depict my happiness in doing this and picked a bright colored yarn to use as my box.
However, the students will be explicitly told not to copy the teachers example.
Resources: Barnett, M. (2012). Extra Yarn. New York: Balzer & Bray.
Special Populations: It would be beneficial for ELL students to be read to in English and go
over the English words for the colors. The teacher could go over the words in English and in the
language of the ELL students.
Extra Materials: The book Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett and possibly lists of what the colors are
in different languages such as Spanish.