THE IMPORTANCE OF

EVERYDAY HEROES
Curriculum Unit for Elementary Art
Designed for 3rd grade

By: Whitney Carnahan

Graduate Student in Art Education
University of Missouri

Everyday heroes are all around

us
Rationale

Through this unit, students will learn the

importance of everyday heroes. They will learn
that they can also be everyday heroes and they
will find out some ways that they already are.
Students will learn the importance of being able
to create gesture drawings and they will learn
that they can create change in world.

Everyday hero: ordinary people

who do extraordinary things

What

is an everyday hero?
Why are everyday heroes important?
What are the qualities that everyday heroes
possess?
How are we or how can we be everyday
heroes?
How does engaging and creating art enrich
people lives?
How does making art attune people to their
surroundings?

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

 Students

will individually construct

representations of places that are a part of
everyday life.
Students will be able to create personally
satisfying artwork using a variety of artistic
processes.
Students will understand how to safely use
materials for artistic processes.
Students will understand how to add details to
artwork to enhance emerging meaning.
Students will be able to determine messages
communicated by an image.

OBJECTIVES

 VTS

Eric Bowmans
Everyday Superhero (approx. 15 min.)
What is going on in this image?
What do you see that makes you say that?
What more can we find?

What makes an everyday hero?

Students will brainstorm adjectives that
describe everyday heroes. They will use an
online tool such as popplet to create a
mindmap of what makes an everyday hero.

Extension

Students can use a class hashtag on

Instagram to continue the discussion and
post pictures of everyday heroes they know
outside of school.

LESSON 1:
DISCOVERING EVERYDAY HEROES

Collaborative

artwork

Teacher will have students brainstorm everyday

heroes that they know. Students will write down
the name of one everyday hero that they know.
Hunt

for everyday heroes

Teacher will send students on a scavenger hunt

for everyday heroes that they know in our school.
Students will go in groups and each one will take
a picture and return to class by the time the time
limit is up.
Students will upload pictures to a class folder.
iMovie

The teacher will then import the photos into

iMovie and the students will edit it democratically
(vote on sound, theme, workds, etc.).
This movie will then be uploaded to the school
web page.

LESSON 1 (cont.):
DISCOVERING EVERYDAY HEROES

Teacher

will pose the following questions:Why is

figure drawing important? How did we record
events before cameras?
Teacher will lead students into a class discussion
about How we represent others in our artwork?
During the class discussion other question and
topics can include, Are we best represented
through stick figures? Are details important when
drawing figures? How did people in the past learn
to draw figures? What did they look at?

LESSON 2:
THE IMPORTANCE OF PLAY

Students

will examine more art from artist

Eric Bowman. They will discuss what
artists need to know in order to create
drawings of figures. They will have a
short VTS-ish discussion about the works
comparing and contrasting them.

LESSON 2:
THE IMPORTANCE OF PLAY ( Day 1 cont.)

Discussion

How can you construct a moment or memory through the creation of a figure
drawing? Teacher will demonstrate how to draw a figure by looking at a
manikin. Students will learn how to use shapes to create figures.
Students

will practice drawing a manikin in an action pose in their

artist journals. Teacher will use this as a bridge to how to draw
those around us.
Students will then spend the rest of the class using figure drawing.
They will each get a chance to model for the class in some sort of
pose. Students will have timed drawings. The teacher will urge the
students to use shapes instead of sticks and to add details to their
figures. The teacher will urge students to work on figure proportions
Closure
Gallery walk
Students will share their favorite drawing of the day.
Post

its

What stuck with you? What confused you?

LESSON 2:
THE IMPORTANCE OF PLAY (Day 1 cont.)

Teacher

Demonstration

Shows how to use a variety of watercolor

techniques.
Shows how to usean online superhero
creator on Marvel.com to create a
superhero reflecting personal preferences
when it comes to wardrobe.
Experimenting

Students will utilize iPads to experiment

with creating superhero figures using
technology on Marvel.com. Students will
have to make artistic decisions regarding
the wardrobes of superheroes.
If there are not enough iPads, half of the
students working in artist journals while the
other half works on the iPads.

LESSON 3: STRETCH & EXPLORE USING

VARIOUS MATERIALS

How

can we be everyday heroes?

Think, Pair, Share
My everyday super powers are.
Popplet

What are some everyday super powers?

Students interact with popplet to create a mind map.
Teacher

explains artist journal assignment.

Think about what you would be like as an everyday superhero. What

is your main super power? Come up with a plan in your artist journal.
Teacher does a demonstration of artist journal assignment.
Pre-thinking/Planning

Students begin to brainstorm ideas and generate preliminary

sketches.
Students will be expected to present pre-thinking to teacher in a
conference before beginning final project.

LESSON 4:
FINDING OUR INNER EVERYDAY HERO

Teacher Exemplars

Presentation

What are the options for presenting these artworks for more than just our
class?
How could we challenge others to be everyday heroes?
How could our artwork have a lasting impact on the world?
What

steps do we take next?

Hopefully students would decide to present their work on the school website
or the art studio Facebook page. We would then take photos of our work and
type our artist statements to include.
LTLYM

Teacher would show them examples from LTLYM. We would then discuss a
prompt or challenge or art assignment
We could post on social media (Instagram, Weebly, or Facebook). We would
devise a space for participants to visit and post in response to our challenge.
We

would revisit the challenge the following week and have a

reflective discussion on the unit as a whole and how art can affect
the world.

LESSON 5: IF WE COULD CHANGE THE

WORLD. WAIT. CAN WE?

Formative

Assessment:

What stuck with you? What confused you? Students

write on a post it that they turn in as their exit slip upon
leaving the class.
Pre-assessment:

Students will be expected to present pre-thinking to

teacher in a conference before beginning final project.
Summative

Assessment:

Students will complete a self-evaluation rubric.

Students will mark themselves in specific categories.
They will also answer reflective questions about the big
idea. Student success would be shown by a completed
self-evaluation and artist statement.

ASSESSMENTS

http://www.learningtoloveyoumore.com/re

ports/69/69.php
http://ericbowman.com/
http://marvel.com/games/play/31/create_
your_own_superhero

RESOURCES