An Art Lesson

Symbols in Art

Set (Engagement): 15 minutes

I began by showing the images on the Powerpoint. These were images of a heart, a smiley face, and a four leaf clover. Ask the students what these images might represent? Possible Answers may include love, luck, happiness. These symbols are relatively universal and mean the same thing through different cultures. They also represent feelings, which should be ntoed. However, not all symbols are universal.

The next slide showed a stop sign in Japan versus a stop in Canada. They mean the same thing but are different ways of showing the same thing. This could cause a lot of problems for visitors. But, we must understand people interpret things in different ways.

Art has a variety of different symbols in it. I showed slides that had local symbols and cultural symbols. Read over the slide with the students They are often used as an expression for feelings 

Development: 20 minutes

Ask the students to use the “selfie paper” to explain what they see looking back at them? Using feelings and symbols. Show them my example. When I take a selfie, I see a Canadian girl who is worried, yet excited. I am worried to finish school and get a good job. I am excited because I know I have a bright future ahead of me. I used an image of a flower because that represents something new, it has just blossomed and this year was the first year I was in a classroom and I am starting a new degree. The flag also represents freedom because in Canada we are lucky to have many freedoms. I used bright colors to explain that I am happy. I used a cowboy hat to symbolize my love for country music and a book to represent my love for reading.

Now, make your own! What symbols represent who you are and how you feel. Explain to me on the back three of them. Why did you draw what you did? Why are those symbols important to who you are and your feelings?

Learning Closure: 10

Present your findings! As part of the summative assessment, I will get student volunteers to show off their work. Explain to the class what they drew. What is important to them? Why? ( I learned through my pre-intersnhip that grade5/6 want to present everything!)

Do we see how symbols are used in Art? It would be difficult to show all of this on a piece of paper without using symbols.

For this lesson, teachers would need “selfie paper”. I had made it myself, creating it to look as if it was a cellphone. Therefore, it would look like a selfie. I also created a PowerPoint, however, this could be done in several ways, and you would not necessarily need a powerpoint.