A Little Spot of Love
Duration: 3-5 Days
Grade Level: K-2
Colorado Visual Arts Standards and GLEs:
VAS1 GLE1, VAS3 GLE1, VAS4 GLE1
Guiding Question: How do you show and feel love?
Teacher Quality Standards in this unit:
TQS IIB, TQS IIC, and TQS IIIA
A Little Spot of Love is a 3-5 day mini-unit designed for grades K-2 that explores the theme of love and the different ways that one can show and feel love for themselves and others.
A Little Spot of Love by Diane Alber shows students that there isn’t just one way to express love and develop that feeling for oneself and others. After reading the story, students explored ideas of how they grow love spots for the people in their lives and themselves. This artifact aligns with TQS IIB because it acknowledges the diverse experiences of the class and creates the opportunities for deeper discussions with students about a universally acknowledged emotion. Through those discussions, they become the teachers. Sharing what they know about how they feel loved and how they foster those feelings. The story encourages readers to be cognizant of differences when trying to understand the way others feel and that there is no one right way to go about receiving and showing love.
(TQS IIB)
For this unit the lesson plans and presentations were modified and edited to fit the Visual Art Standards and GLEs for each grade. As student needs were identified, such as access to materials, modifications were made as well. For example the 2nd-grade class required more time when making the folded paper book and so, an extra day was added and the learning objective was: “I can reflect on what was difficult in making a folded paper book”. As students worked and a problem presented itself they would share with the class what was happening, what they did, and how they were fixing it or if they needed help. Through this process students started taking more control of the discussion and actively collaborated with each other to find solutions, as well as encourage each other to keep trying. The differentiations done for this lesson exemplify TQS IIC by showing that extra steps were taken in anticipation of the students needs. Information was presented in a variety of ways and made accessable so students could self-pace and return to steps and directions as needed. This lesson plan also exhibits TQS IIIA by acknowledging the different ways in which learning takes place. The lesson connects to social and emotional growth with the big idea and the making of the folded paper book was ultimately a stem activity that pushed students abilities to problem-solve and learn through trial and error.
TQS IIC and TQS IIIA
Teacher Samples and Video Demonstrations:
Student Work:
