Unit Overview: Students studied historical 17th century clipper ship design and learned about the history of the Mayflower in order to create their own Mayflower paintings using sharpie and watercolor paint. It's Thanksgiving time. And with Thanksgiving comes the history of the Mayflower. Surprisingly, a lot of students don't understand the hardship that early settlers faced to come to the New World. I think that this unit is important not only for art, but also for students to understand what kind of situations and circumstances those before us faced in order to seek out life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
For this lesson, I started by showing students clips from "This Is America, Charlie Brown: The Mayflower Voyagers". There is so much history in this 20 minute video. It makes the Mayflower voyage related to students. After discussing the history, we talk about the look and design of 17th century clipper ships. I use the lesson "Clipper Ships" from Deep Space Sparkle to help guide students to drawing a detailed clipper ship. Often, students feel defeated from the get go. But we always start with a practice drawing before moving to our final. I always remind students that when learning something new, there is a challenge. If we never feel challenged, we never grow. And even in art, we want to grow. That is why we must sometimes draw hard things. In the end, each student felt accomplished. They achieved something that had never tried before. That is a great feeling to leave students with.
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