Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes – Part A: Activating Prior Knowledge
15 minutes – Part B: How Are Other Artists Inspired?
30 minutes – Part C: What Special Places Inspire Me?
5 minutes – Reflection

Part A: Activating Prior Knowledge

Step 1.

Begin this lesson by inviting the class to suggest answers to the following question:

What is inspiration?

Through your discussion, guide students towards the idea that inspiration can mean being mentally driven to feel or do something, especially something creative. Inspiration usually comes when you have a strong emotional response to something, and the emotions you feel make you want to act or create something. Some examples could include:

Having a conversation with someone that made you think about something differently, which then made you want to take action.
Watching or reading a news story that evoked an emotional reaction which then made you want to take action.
Seeing something amazing, or beautiful or really cool that made you want to take action.

Step 2.

Now invite students to interview each other using the following questions (questions also available on the Student Worksheet):

What is one way you have been inspired?
What action did being inspired make you want to take?

Students should aim to interview three or four other students and make notes about their answers in their workbooks.

Once complete, invite students to share what they found out with the class. You could ask students to share the answers they recorded with the class, or work with students to categorise student answers into themes, such as; ‘a conversation I had’, ‘news stories’, ‘something I’ve seen or observed’ or any other relevant theme.

Part B: How Are Other Artists Inspired?

Preparation:

Print both the following sets of flashcards: Art Inspiration Flashcards and Nature Inspiration Flashcards. Cut each flashcard in half and glue the questions to the back of the corresponding image.

Step 1.

Now explain to students that they will investigating how artists are inspired to create art, and what they might be inspired by.

For some artists, inspiration might come from the feeling of being in love with someone which makes them want to paint or draw a picture of the person they love. Sometimes artists might be inspired by their beliefs – like their religion – which makes them want to create art. Sometimes they might see, hear or do something that upsets them and they want to express this feeling through their art. Sometimes a happy memory can inspire an artist to make art. Or, sometimes they might see or visit a place that is beautiful or important to them, which makes them experience a feeling like love, wonder or awe, and this can inspire them to make art.

Now display the Art Inspiration Flashcards to students, using the prompts on the flashcards to encourage discussion.

Step 2. Once complete, you can now display the Nature Inspiration Flashcards, explaining that the artists have been inspired by places that are either important to them or that they love. Again, use the prompts on the flashcards to encourage discussion.

Part C: What Special Places Inspire Me?

Step 1.

Explain to students that they will now think of a place in nature that is important or special to them. This place could be somewhere grand and amazing – like the top of a mountain or by the sea – or it could be somewhere in their back yard or local park – like under or in a favourite tree or around the puddles that form after a rainstorm.

Allow students a minute or two to think of a place that is important to them.

Once complete, you can then invite students to interrogate their relationship to this place more deeply, by responding to the following prompts (also available on the Student Worksheet):

Describe a place in nature that is special to you.
Try to describe why is this place special to you.

Once students have responded to these statements, ask them to think of with five 'inspiring' words that help to summarise and define their thoughts and feelings about their special place. Suggest words like the following:

Once complete, each invite students to share their responses with a partner.

Step 2.

Now explain to students that they will be creating a watercolour picture based on this special place. Before they start creating though, students need to understand how this place inspires them and what they want to do with this inspiration.

Print, project or write the following questions on the board (download here). Still working with their partner, you can now invite students to discuss their answers to the following questions:

The teacher can move around the class, checking in with pairs of students and helping them to answer the questions and develop ideas for their pictures. You can also provide students with the Watercolour Techniques Handout to help students think about how their pictures might look.

Step 3.

Once all students have had the chance to discuss their answers, they can begin creating. Remind students to portray depth of colour, textures and other effects in their artwork.

Step 4.

Once complete, invite students to return to their original pairs to share their pictures and to give each other feedback. Each student should think of feedback based on the following points (these points are also available on the Student Worksheet):

One thing I really like about your picture is…
When I look at your picture I think about…
When I look at your picture I feel…
In your picture, you have shown me that this place in nature is special to you by…

Remind students to be KIND, SPECIFIC and HELPFUL when providing feedback:

Step 5.

Finally, you could engage students in a class discussion around their pictures. Consider the following questions in your discussion:

How does drawing, painting and sharing special places in nature make you feel about our environment?
Why should we look after these special places? What plants and animals need these places to stay healthy?
How could we care for the places in our pictures? (TIP: check the Cool Australia Biodiversity Digital Library for ideas on how to care for biodiversity)
What other places in nature would you like to make art about?
How can we use art to inspire other people to take action for our environment?
What other messages about our environment could you share through art?

Use student answers to these questions to guide future art projects and investigations.

Extend: You could also invite students to create an artist statement in support of their drawing. Explain to students that an artist statement is a short, written statement of the artist’s intention behind their work. In the case of this lesson, the artist statements could be used to communicate any environmental sustainability messages in the artwork. Students can use the following questions to guide the writing of their artist statements:

What is the title of your artwork?
What materials did you use?
What is the message behind your work?
What do you want the audience to do differently after seeing your artwork? Describe one action that people can take to make sure that the place you have painted stays healthy.

Invite students to draft, redraft and create a 'good copy' of their artist statement so that it can be displayed next to their artwork in an exhibition.

Reflection

Engage students in a class discussion around the following questions, or invite them to work independently to answer these questions (questions also available on the Student Worksheet):

What was hardest for you in this lesson?
What did you do to overcome this difficulty?
Through this lesson, what did you learn about what inspires you?

Teacher Reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

What did you learn about your teaching today?
What worked well?
What didn't work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

Creative Sustainability - Inspiring Places in Nature

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