Grades/Level: Upper Elementary (3–5)
Subjects: Visual Arts, English–Language Arts
Time Required: Long–Term Unit
Four to six class periods
Author: John W. Waldschmidt, Special Education Teacher, Broad Avenue Elementary, Los Angeles Unified School District

Lesson Overview

Students create a work of art and write a story about "Man with a Hoe Five Years Later." Students also photograph their hands with a tool and write about what wonderful tools hands are.

Learning Objectives

Students should be able to:
• create a work of art that tells a story.
• express in writing the thoughts of a character in a story.
• use a camera to create a work of art.
• draw their hands and hand tools from observation.
• write an essay about how their hand is a tool.

Materials

• Fourth grade California history textbook
• Hand tools (such as pick, shovel, hammer, ruler, saw, etc.)
• Art supplies: paper, colored pencils, crayons, watercolors
• Camera (digital camera works well)
• Pencils and writing paper

Lesson Steps

2 separate projects: 1] Man with a Hoe 2] Hand Tools

Man with a Hoe project:
1. Read about California agriculture in fourth grade textbook.

2. Discuss what hard work means and the physical labor required to cultivate the land.

3. Ask students about a time when they did hard physical work.

4. Have students look at the Man with a Hoe painting and discuss what he may be doing and why.

5. Propose that he may be working on a farm and tell students about the artist. The painter lived and worked in France. His painting tells us about the very difficult work required of people everywhere who farm and cultivate the land.

6. Students look at the pencil drawing of Man with a Hoe and compare it to the painting. Note the lack of detail in the background and how the man is standing in the foreground.

7. Students make a gesture drawing of a man holding a tool. It may be helpful for students to "warm up" by practicing gesture drawing first. Have students take turns modelling and drawing one another.

8. Students think about how this man may live after five years of hard work and discuss what they might put in the background of their drawings after the man has worked the field for five years.

9. Students make their own work of art titled "Man with a Hoe Five Years Later."

10. Students write about what the man might be thinking, saying, and/or feeling five years into the future.

11. Display completed works of art and have students share stories.

Hand Tools project:
1. Read about California railroads in your fourth grade history textbook. Discuss the hard work and hand tools that were necessary to build the railroads.

2. View and discuss the photograph by Tina Modotti and discuss hand tools.

3. Students examine and discuss their own hands and make contour drawing of their hands.

4. Bring examples of hand tools into the classroom and discuss how they are used.

5. Students sketch a hand tool and then sketch their hands holding a tool.

6. Student look again at the photograph by Tina Modotti. Discuss the medium used for this work of art. What are some tools that artists use? What key tool might Modotti have used to make this work of art? Do you think Modotti used her hands in the same way an artist who paints or draws uses his or her hands?

7. Students find a partner and decide how to pose and take a photograph of his or her hands holding a tool.

8. Students use a camera (a digital camera works well) to photograph each other's hands holding a tool.

9. Have students develop a topic sentence about their hands as tools.

10. Students write a two-paragraph essay about their hands as tools to illustrate their photographs.

11. Students share their drawings, essays and photographs with the classroom.

Standards Addressed

Visual Arts Standards for California Public Schools
Grade 4
Historical and Cultural Context 3.2 Identify and discuss the content of artworks of the past and present, focusing on the different cultures that have contributed to California's history and art heritage.

Grade 5
Creative Expression
2.0 Students apply artistic process and skills, using a variety of media to communicate meaning and intent in original artworks.

Language Arts Standards for California Public Schools
Grade4
Writing
2.1a Relate ideas, observations, or recollections of an event or experience.