By Mary Erickson, Ph.D., TCA Education Developer with Arizona art teacher Sarah Chelton

Green & Gray is a multi-lesson unit plan designed in conjunction with the Green & Gray exhibition at the Gallery at Tempe Center for the Arts. Lesson 3 is appropriate for secondary. Lesson 4 is appropriate for elementary.

Preview the Green & Gray Exhibition Preview PowerPoint

Themes

THEME IN LIFE: We all have relationships with both natural and built structures every single day.

THEME IN ART: Artists connect and contrast the relationships between the "green" and "gray" in our world.

Key Questions

Lessons approach the themes through four key questions.

	SEEK: What ideas can I get from my own life and times? (natural & human-built structures)
	LOOK: What can I see in the artwork? (organization of parts)
	CHOOSE: How do I want my artwork to look? (organization of parts)
	COMPARE: What other artworks are associated with the big ideas underlying this artwork? ("green" and "gray" theme)

Community Connections

People come from all over the US and the world to see the marvels of nature in Arizona, from the Grand Canyon in the north, to the Saguaro National Monument in the south, to the ponderosa forests of the Mogollon Rim in between. In prehistoric time and still today, people have made their own structures in and among Arizona's fantastic natural structures, for example, the ancient stone dwellings high on the cliff side at Montezuma's Castle, the ultramodern football stadium where Cardinals play on the flat lands of Phoenix's West Valley. Sometimes the human-built structures dominate nature and sometimes nature's structures overwhelm anything made by people. And sometimes the two types of structures meet, merge or even mingle playfully.

Lesson One

One: Green and Gray Structures

Green and Gray Exhibition Preview PowerPoint
Green and Gray Structures PowerPoint
Sample human-made structures (such as a pop-up book, a tinker toy construction, or a music box)
Sample natural structures (such as a bird's nest, a branch with twigs or an artichoke).

Questor Questions about Mysterious Landscapes (pdf)
Green and Gray Exhibition Preview Powerpoint

Mixed Structures in Mixed Media PowerPoint
camera or camera phone
printer
old magazines (National Geographic, Arizona Highways, Good Housekeeping, Popular Mechanics, real estate brochures, etc.)
markers, acrylic paints or colored pencils
scissors
glue sticks

Lesson Four
Four: Our Green and Gray World (Elementary)

Resources
Our Green and Gray World PowerPoint
Text Panel Template (pdf) (lesson four)
old magazines (National Geographic, Arizona Highways, Good Housekeeping, Popular Mechanics, real estate brochures, etc.)
4 1/2" X 6 1/2" green and gray heavy paper or card stock
larger sheets of assorted colored craft paper for groups' presentations
scissors
glue sticks
template for 4 1/2" X 6 1/2" text panel

Supplies

SECONDARY

• camera or camera phone
• printer
• markers, acrylic paints or colored pencils

ELEMENTARY

• old magazines (National Geographic, Arizona Highways, Good Housekeeping, Popular Mechanics, real estate brochures, etc.)
• 4 1/2" X 6 1/2" green and gray heavy paper or card stock
• larger sheets of assorted colored craft paper for group presentations
• scissors
• glue sticks

Credits

Linda Crain
Nancy Egly
Kris Swisher
Nancy Fiering
Liza Bergman

Estimated Time

Lesson One =  15-20 minutes
Lesson Two = Field Trip
Lesson Three = 200-250 minutes
Lesson Four = 135-225 minutes

Free viewers are required for some of the attached documents.
They can be downloaded by clicking on the icons below.

Acrobat Reader Windows Media Player Word Viewer Excel Viewer PowerPoint Viewer