Grand Canyon: Exploring a Natural Wonder
Lesson Plan Name
Grand Canyon Poems
Grade level
Second and up
Objectives
Students will be able to know basic information on the Grand Canyon.
Students will be able to create descriptive words that they thought
suited their perceptions of the Grand Canyon. Students will be able
to put their words into phrases and develop free-style poems about the
Grand Canyon.
Arizona State Standards
Arts 1AV-F6. Use visual structures (e.g., organizational principles,
expressive features, sensory qualities) to organize the components of
own work into a cohesive and meaningful whole
PO 1. Create a finished work of art based on organizational principles
(e.g., rhythm, emphasis, unity).
PO 2. Use expressive qualities to create meaning in a finished work
of art.
Social Studies 3SS-F2. Identify natural and human characteristics of
places and how people interact with and modify their environment, with
emphasis on:
PO 1. natural characteristics of places, including land forms, bodies
of water, natural resources, and weather
PO 2. human characteristics of places, including houses, schools, neighborhoods,
and communities
PO 3. the relationship between the physical features and the location
of human activities
PO 4. how people depend on the physical environment and its natural
resources to satisfy their basic needs
PO 5. how people can conserve and replenish certain resources
PO 6. the ways in which people have used and modified resources in the
local region, including dam construction, building roads, building cities,
and raising crops.
Language Arts R-F2.Use word recognition and decoding strategies such
as phonetic skills, context clues, picture clues, word order, prefixes
and suffixes to comprehend written selections.
PO 1. Derive meaning from a written selection using reading/decoding
strategies phonetic clues, context clues, picture clues, word order,
structural analysis, (e.g., prefixes, suffixes), and word recognition.
Sequence
*Talk about the area of where Arizona is located in the United States
and why it is called the Southwestern Region.
*The book is read. At each page, students are to be asked to tell a
little about the picture and what the artist wanted to capture. Students
are also given bits of historical information about the Canyon.
*After the book, students are asked to think of descriptive words that
they thought of when they saw the Grand Canyon and they are to use the
book as a reference to description.
* These are the words that the whole second grade class I read to thought
up:
tiny
colorful
nature
good
amazing
tall
creatures
magic
nice
beautiful
wild |
natural
mountains
butterflies
insects
bees
blue
huge
cool
water
awesome |
surprising
trees
plants
quiet
clean
rocks
pictures
perfect
view
cliffs |
green
flowers
rainbow
dirt
caverns
quiet
grass
animals
fish
purple |
*Students take words from this list, as well as others they think of,
and use them in their poems about the Grand Canyon.
Prompts
Do you know what other places are named after Powell?
Why is this rock called "Sinking Ship"?
What do you notice most about the picture?
What kind of plant is this?
Why do you think it is only wild?
How does the Canyon make you feel?
If you closed you eyes, what do you think of?
Additional Ideas
Students can also take an illustration from the book and try to recreate
it in their own watercolors. They can also paint the Canyon as they
see it or as they believe it looks. Students doing their own watercolors
helps to generate interest about the Grand Canyon and build creativity
in creating art like the author had done.