Vessels in Greek art: Museum pre-visit

This lesson will focus on what vessels are, where we can find them in our everyday world, and the concept that vessels are containers that hold something. This lesson is the first lesson of two.

A lesson plan for grade 2 English Language Arts

By Katie O'Connor

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Related topics

• Learn more about hands-on, journaling, language arts, read-alouds, and vessels.

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Learning outcomes

The student will define and discuss the term “vessel” through exploration and discussion of everyday containers, and write 6-8 sentences in his/her art journal about a vessel of their own.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

45 Minutes

Materials/resources

• examples of vessels (have students bring a vessel from home [soda bottle, vase, cup, bowl, pot, etc.])
• chart paper
• markers
• art journals
• pencils
• dictionary

Pre-activities

Read Copper Tin Cup by Carole Lexa Schaefer. It is a about a young boy who has a copper tin cup with his initials on it. He learns that his cup has been passed down to him through generations. He discovers that his grandmother, father, and grandfather have used the cup before giving it to him.

Have a discussion about the word “Container” (an object that holds something). Ask the children to bring in an example of a container from their home (optional). Otherwise, you can bring containers from your home.

Activities

1. Put the everyday containers around the room. Have the children walk around looking at each container.
2. Once the children have had time to explore the everyday containers, bring all the children into your circle area. Have one child get a dictionary and look up our new word, “vessel.” Use the chart paper to brainstorm all of the vessels they saw around the room today.
3. Once you have the chart paper filled with everyday vessels, discuss why vessels are important and how we use them. Have each child return to his/her seat.
4. Pass out the children’s art journals. Have the children write 6-8 sentences about one of the following prompts. The prompt could be, “Pick a vessel and write a story about what you keep in your vessel” or “Pretend you lost your vessel. Write about the adventure you have in finding your vessel.” (The children could choose a vessel from the chart paper list.)
5. Remind the children to use correct punctuation and capitalization.
6. Have an “Author’s Chair.” Children can volunteer to come up and read their entry from their art journals.
7. Close the lesson by telling students that they will see very, very old vessels on their next trip to the art museum.

Assessment

Look for 3 of the 4 following goals in the child’s writing:

• Does the child include a type of a vessel in his/her story or journal entry?
• Does the child include the concept that his/her vessel can hold something?
• Does the child use correct punctuation? (in particular, periods, commas, and capitalization)
• Does the child’s journal entry construct several sentences on the topic?

Supplemental information

Teachers may want to look at the following titles of Greek vessel art pieces as attachments below:

• Bucci
• Kylix
• Lekythos

Comments

See the follow-up lesson, Vessels in Greek art: Museum visit.