This unit takes about 4 weeks.  The students will draw to scale a furnished single story home floor plan.   They will draw an elevation view of one section of one room on graph paper , on good paper and on the computer.  They will learn quite alot of art and math vocabulary.   They will do some computer calculator work, word processing and  drawing.  The grade seven math teacher  will be doing a math experience to go along with this art  unit.  He  will have the students working on  perimeter, area, spread sheets and money earned at specific careers at the same time they are doing the math part of this unit for me.
 
 

1. What will my future become ?
2. When will I use the math and English skills I am learning in school in the real world?
3. Why are scale and proportion important ?
4. How do I use that computer ?
5. What is a good neighbor ?
6. Is following directions really important ?

 STANDARD 4     UNDERSTANDING   DIVERSE  CULTURES
 C.   WE WILL LOOK AT HOUSES OF DIFFERENT CULTURES; YURTS, PREHISTORIC CAVES, IGLOOS, LOG CABINS, ETC..
STANDARD 3   RESPOND CRITICALLY TO A VARIETY OF WORKS IN THE ARTS.
 B.  IDENTIFY, ANALYZE AND INTERPRET THE VISUAL  CHARACTERISTICS .  THEY SHOULD BE ABLE TO VISUALIZE WALKING THROUGH THE FLOOR  PLANS OF OTHER STUDENTS AND UNDERSTAND THEIR ELEVATIONS.
 C. COMPARE THE WAYS IDEAS AND CONCEPTS ARE COMMUNICATED THROUGH VISUAL ARTS.  THE STUDENTS WILL COMPARE THEIR WORK WITH THAT OF OTHER STUDENTS, ARCHITECTS AND MINE TO CHECK FOR SCALE AND PROPORTION AND UNUSUAL OR CREATIVE FEATURES.   THEY WILL SEE THAT STANDARDIZED SYMBOLS ARE IMPORTANT OR A KEY OR LABELS ARE ABSOLUTELY NEEDED.
STANDARD 2  KNOWING AND USING ARTS  MATERIALS AND RESOURCES
 A. DEVELOP SKILLS WITH A VARIETY OF ART MATERIALS AND COMPETENCE IN AT LEAST ONE MEDIUM.   THEY WILL EXPERIENCE PENCIL AND COMPUTER DRAWING.  THE STUDENTS WILL SEE THAT PRECISION IN DRAWING IS CRITICAL WHEN DOING ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN.   THEY WILL SEE THAT GRAPH PAPER IS USEFUL IN ART.   THEY WILL CAREFULLY SKETCH THEIR IDEAS IN  PENCIL BEFORE THEY GO TO THE COMPUTERS.   WE WILL DISCUSS THAT SOME ART IS FREEHAND AND SKETCHY AND SOME IS NOT.
 B. USE THE COMPUTER AS A  DESIGNING TOOL AND  COMMUNICATE VISUAL IDEAS.  THEY WILL USE FLYING COLORS AND CLARIS WORKS PAINTING AND DRAWING AND WORD PROCESSING PROGRAMS  AND USE THE CALCULATOR ON A COMPUTER.
STANDARD 1 LANGUAGE FOR INFORMATION AND UNDERSTANDING
 C.  USE THE ELEMENTS AND PRINCIPLES OF ART TO COMMUNICATE SPECIFIC MEANINGS TO OTHERS IN THEIR ART WORK.  WE WILL USE SPACE, SCALE, PROPORTION, LINE, COLOR, VARIETY AND CONTRAST OF SHAPE AND SIZE , BALANCE , HARMONY AND UNITY.

      The knowledge to be learned includes art and math vocabulary, how to read a floor plan and elevation,  the fact that everyone does not live in the same kind of  house that  we do.
     The  floor plan unit is started by the students writing the answer to the question  ;  If you were a zillionaire what would you have ? Also I walk them through a goofy floor plan that has the bathroom just inside the front door and has a car parked in a garage with only a 3 foot  wide garage door way and many other strange features.
 

 
     The students will  get the information by teacher demonstrations, looking at samples on the wall,  using charts , reading their critique sheets ( I can give copies of these to anyone who would like to see them) and by looking at work being done by classmates and actual practice on paper.
     They will  organize and store the knowledge by taking notes, making charts, making sketches , checking things off on  their critique sheets.
     They will extend and refine their understanding of floor plans by pretending to visit  the dream houses of other students.  They will look for errors  and try to help correct them.  They will examine and analyze  elevation views and 1 point perspective views to try to clarify what is being illustrated.  Costs of things will be compared so that an expensive home doesn’t end up with garage sale or roadside cast off furnishings.  Costs of land in various parts of the world will be understood.  Distances to various important places will be stressed for daily life convenience.  Maybe they will see that in order to have all these nice things in the future they need to work hard now.  A good job and good income needs a good education.

The  one point perspective drawing and the huge amount of money total cost that they get for everything that they purchased

 The students must be able to draw a straight line using a straight edge.  They must be able to understand the concept of walls on paper.  They must have a basic concept of sizes and proportion.  Basic math skills like adding and  multiplying are needed.  They must be able to follow directions .  Spelling and punctuation are important.  They must be able to judge distance, like miles as opposed to 10 feet.
 

 The special needs students will be helped by the math lab and reading lab teachers , the  librarian and Mrs. Doni.  I also wander the room constantly and help.  Students are always welcome to come to my room for extra help during their study halls.
 

 
day 1.   First the students tape their 4 sheets of graph paper together neatly so that the squares line up perfectly at all of the seams.  I show them how to tack them inplace before they fully secure them.  Next  I tell them that they are now an adult and have graduated from college, or high school or some technical school.  They inherit a zillion dollars.   The students make a dream house wish list.   They are to include types of cars, special rooms like a video room, weight room, etc. and landscape features like a private lake or dirt bike trail.  They also must decide where they want to live, in a specific city or in a rural area etc..
day 2. We go in 12 squares from 2 edges of the graph  paper to create a corner of their house. This line is doubled to make a foot thick exterior wall. I stress the difference between exterior and interior walls.   Next I gather the kids together and give a demonstration on how to create a floor plan.  I show them a silly floor plan that makes people go through the bathroom as they enter the house and go outside to get to the kitchen, etc.. Now the students watch as I design a kitchen and talk about scale(ours is 1 square = 1 foot) ,  template use , how to use a straight edge and discuss the advantage of  drawing  lightly.  If there is time left they begin their kitchen plan.
day 3. The students work  on their kitchen plan using light pencil pressure so they can erase if they make mistakes .  When most are done I give a demonstration on joining rooms together, halls, closets, doors and windows.  They continue drawing and designing.  I ask them to pretend to invite each other over for dinner so they walk through each others’ dream houses and look for mistakes or great inventive features.  I walk around through out the project helping and suggesting things.
days 4-8 Continue to design and draw.  They add furniture to scale as they go to make sure rooms are big enough but not too huge.  The furniture must have costs on it so we make a list as we go, checking prices in catalogues and by talking  with  their parents.  Sometimes the internet is needed to check a specific price.
day 9 Landscape features are added like sidewalks, driveways, decks etc.. The neighbors are indicated by writing at the paper edges what is North, South, East and West as soon as you leave the immediate property.  We talk about interests and the importance of being close to  or far from certain things.  Specific trees, bushes and flowers are added.  They go through their critique sheet to make sure nothing has been left out.   The small amount  of word processing on the 10 point grading sheet must be done on my classroom computers so that I can guide them  before we all go to the computer lab together.  This is the first deadline.  Today they hand in the floorplan so that I can grade them and they can see what needs to be fixed or regraded.
days 10 and 11  They figure the square footage and cost of the house on scratch paper.  Then they add up the cost of the house, land and cars and furniture.  We go to the mac lab to type this up neatly and in an organized way.  I encourage them to experiment with fonts, letter colors and sizes.  They may organize this information in boxes or columns etc..They may use the computer calculator and should use spell check.  They have 2 days in the computer lab to do this part then it is turned in for grading .  They may finish up later when we go back to the lab or in my room or at home or on the library computers during study halls.  This part can be regraded after I have looked it over.
day 12.  I give a demonstration on elevation drawings.  The students pick an area to draw  and begin using graph paper.  When the basics are in place they go to the light table and trace their drawing onto good drawing paper .  Back on the graph paper copy they add vertical and horizontal  details.
day 13.  Now I give a demo on drawing elevations on the computer using both clarisworks paint and flying colors.  They use the paint brush tool and the rectangle and line tools and also clip art or stamps. The students may make arrangements to come in during a couple of study halls to work on  theirs.  We will also go to the computer lab to do this part for 2 days.  I grade these after the second day in the computer lab so that they know what needs to be fixed.
day 14.   I give a demonstration on 1 point perspective, talking about details , scale, foreground and background as we go.  The students begin to do the 1 point perspective on their practice paper .  When done with it they will enlarge it on the good paper.
days 15 -17.  Continue to work on the details and color .  Crop and mat when done.
day 18.  I show houses from other cultures and we have a discussion about them.  During study hall they must go to the internet  or the Shelter book and locate a house from another culture print it out or xerox it , label it and staple it to their unit.
day 19. Organize the unit parts.  Staple together  the grading sheet for the floor plan, the math part grading sheet, the actual typed math part, the sample of a type of home, the vocabulary with definitions, the graph paper version of the elevation and 1 point perspective and  the computer version of the elevation.  The matted 1 point perspective and  the actual floor plan on graph paper should be left separate but turned in now.   Now I grade any of it that they have not had graded for what ever reason and they are allowed 5 days to fix those grades on their own time.

  computers with word processing, painting , a calculator and internet access
Flying colors is made by Meta Creations and was found in the mac mall catalog