Coin Rubbing & Print Composition 3 sessions 90 minutes each Essential Question: What are the artistic and mathematical attributes of money? Lesson Goal: Students create a layered composition consisting of coin rubbings, a watercolor wash, and ink prints of coins they design. Essential Objectives Students will be able to: skip count by 5s, 10s, and 100s to calculate the value of their composition create/solve word problems involving money create rubbings that show the detail of coin designs design and print their own coin Common Core State Standards for Mathematics Numbers & Operations in Base Ten: Understand Place Value 2. Count within 1000; skip-count by 5s, 10s, and 100s. Measurement & Data: Work with Time & Money 8. Solve word problems involving dollar bills, quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies, using $ and symbols appropriately. Example: If you have 2 dimes and 3 pennies, how many cents do you have? California State Visual Arts Content Standards ARTISTIC PERCEPTION 1.3: Identify the elements of art in objects in nature, the environment, and works of art, emphasizing line, color, shape/form, texture, and space. CREATIVE EXPRESSION 2.1: Demonstrate beginning skill in the use of basic tools and art-making processes, such as printing and crayon rubbings. HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT 3.2: Recognize and use the vocabulary of art to describe art objects from various cultures and time periods. AESTHETIC VALUING 4.1: Compare ideas expressed through their own works of art with ideas expressed in the work of others. Materials Tape Watercolors/brushes Scratch foam Printing ink Watercolor paper Coin manipulatives Brayers Scissors Vellum Colored pencils Water cups Key Vocabulary Math: dollars; cents; coins; value Art: rubbing; texture; print
Pre-Lesson Math Activity Focus Question: How can understanding money, help us better understand math? In math journals: Create one rubbing with each coin. Write cent value next to it. (Students will assign colors to their coin during the art lesson). Name each coin and explain how it makes up part of a dollar. o Penny 100 in $1 o Nickel count by fives to see that there are 20 in $1 o Dimes count by tens to see that there are 10 in $1 o Quarter four in $1 o Half-Dollar two in $1 Notice the different sizes of coins (e.g. the dime is smaller but worth more than the penny). Review that combinations of coins have the same value as other coins (e.g. five pennies equal one nickel, two nickels equal a dime, etc ) Make $1.23 with the coins on their desk. Discuss how students came up with different ways to reach the same value. 2
Session 1 Create Coin Rubbings and Calculate Value ACCESS PRIOR KNOWLEDGE (5 min) What do you know about our system of money? What does looking at coins tell us about their value? What are some symbols that appear on money? ART OBSERVATION (15 min) Show students images of the Iceni coin and rubbing (additional types of coins from different countries and time periods would also be helpful). Inform students that artists design these everyday objects. Ask the following questions: What shapes do you notice? How do you think this texture would feel if you rubbed your hand on it? How does the rubbing show the texture of the coin? What symbols on this coin do you recognize? Why do you think coins are made out of metal and not another material? What kinds of artistic decisions do you think the designers of these coins made? Tell students about the Iceni tribe. WARM UP ACTIVITY (55 min) Students choose one color for each coin and create a color swatch next to the corresponding coin in the coin chart. Note: If desired, teacher can ask students to apply color theory (e.g. use all warm/cool, primary, or secondary colors). Students tape coins to vellum using strips of tape long enough to tape a few coins at a time (not so long that the tape gets twisted). Note: If desired, teachers can give guidelines for how to compose the coins on the page (e.g. bilateral or radial symmetry). Note: Teachers can ask students to think about math while creating their compositions, by requiring students to group coins in values of 5, 10, 50 cents, or one dollar. Teachers can also assign an amount that each composition must add up to, so that students are conducting math calculations while composing their design. Students turn vellum over and use colored pencil or color sticks to create rubbings from the coins, coloring each coin with its designated color (students may have to flip paper back and forth to check which coin they are rubbing). 3
Students calculate the value of the coins in their composition (some students may have a tendency to count how many coins they have instead of how much the coins are worth) by grouping coins in categories (e.g. add all pennies together, skip count by 5s to add all nickels together, skip count by 10s to add all dimes together, group quarters in groups of four and add together, group half-dollars in groups of two and add together). Students take off coins carefully so as not to rip paper CLOSURE (15 min) How did you decide which coins to use when making your pattern? What surprised you about how your design came out? What was the monetary value of your design? 4
Session 2: Introduce Warm/cool; Create watercolor wash and coin design ACCESS PRIOR KNOWLEDGE (5 min) What are some ways to group colors? What do you know about using paint or watercolor? What are some symbols you recognize on coins? WARM UP ACTIVITY Show students a color wheel and introduce them to warm colors (red, orange, yellow) and cool colors (blue, purple, darker green) Ask students to choose whether to use a warm or cool color for their wash. Demonstrate how to create a watercolor wash wet on wet technique by first painting the paper with water and then painting over the water with a color. Cover paper in a warm color watercolor wash on one side and a cool color watercolor wash on the other side. ART MAKING ACTIVITY Have students recall the coin rubbings they did in the previous session. Closely examine the coins and have students describe what they see Discuss symbols that are used on coins. Have students draw a circle in their journals and design a coin of their own. Note: Teachers can ask students to create multiple coins, assigning a value to each. Trace coin design from math journal onto tracing paper. Place tracing paper upside down (so print doesn t come out backwards) on printing foam. Use a colored pencil to trace over all lines on the tracing paper to etch design into printing foam. Tracing paper may rip. CLOSURE (15 min) What symbol did you use on your coin? How does the scratch foam feel when you rub your hand on it? 5
Session 3: Art Observation, Print Coin, Reflect ACCESS PRIOR KNOWLEDGE (5 min) How can we use both math and to understand money? ART OBSERVATION (15 min) Show students Rauschenberg. Ask the following questions: What do you see? What images do you recognize? What images are hard to see? Describe the textures you see. How do you think the artist created this? Discuss transfer. How has the artist arranged the images in this artwork? How has the artist created the various layers you see? What layer do you think he created first? What ideas do you think Robert Rauschenberg is trying to communicate in this image? Tell students about the work of Robert Rauschenberg. ART ACTIVITY (25 min) Cut out coin from scratch foam sheet. Ask students to choose a color from the opposite color family that they chose for their watercolor wash. (i.e. if they chose a warm color for the wash, choose a cool color printing ink). Ink foam Place inked side of the scratch foam onto coin rubbing composition. Place newsprint on the back of the scratch foam (so ink does not spread onto paper) and press firmly onto paper. Note: If students made multiple coins, they can print multiple times, overlapping. Then they can calculate the value of their printed coins. While students are waiting to print, they can use colored pencils to draw into the background (negative space between coin rubbings) to enhance their composition. When paper is dry, tape vellum coin rubbing on top of watercolor and print. CLOSURE (30 min) Display students artwork and ask the following questions: What do you see? What images can you recognize in the different layers? How would you describe the color you see in this image? Why do you think the artist combined these different types of images? What part of Rauschenberg s work inspired you to create your own artwork? 6
How well can you count coins? Post-Lesson Math Focus Questions When adding money, why is it important to know the dollar and cent symbols? How did this art project help you practice math skills with money? Create a word problem to go with your composition and others at your table. Activities Share composition with partner and ask him/her to find the value. Find the value of all the compositions at the table. Figure out which composition represents the least/greatest amount at the table/in the class. Subtract the composition with the least amount from the composition with the greatest amount. 7
Yellow Body, Robert Rauschenberg, 1968. Solvent transfer on paper with graphite, watercolor, gouache, and wash, 22 1/2 x 30 inches (57.2 x 76.2 cm). 8
Robert Rauschenberg (1925 2008) This image demonstrates for students the transfer of information using different media. For example, some images are magazine clippings that have been transferred to the paper. Other images are transferred using graphite (pencil) rubbings. A variety of textures and partially recognizable images create a sense of layered mystery. A native of Port Arthur, Texas, Robert Rauschenberg was born on October 22, 1925. After briefly attending the University of Texas at Austin to study pharmacology, and serving in the United States Navy during World War II, he enrolled at the Kansas City Art Institute in 1947. In early 1948, he traveled to Paris to study at the Académie Julien. Robert Rauschenberg was the defining force in contemporary art for nearly sixty years, creating a wealth of art (painting, photography, sculpture, performance, and printmaking) more varied than that of any artist of the twentieth or twenty-first centuries. For him, painting entailed not only using a brush, but also silk screening, collaging, transferring, and imprinting, and he did so on the widest array of materials from canvas, board, and fabric to sheet metal, Plexiglas, plaster, and paper. He has been called a forerunner of virtually every postwar American art movement since Abstract Expressionism, however he remained fiercely independent from any particular affiliation throughout his protean life. (taken from www.rauschenbergfoundation.org) 9
Bronze Coin of the Iceni 10
Rubbing of bronze Iceni coin 11
Iceni Coins The two coin images show the design and texture transferred through the use of graphite rubbing in the same manner used in this lesson. The Iceni ( /aɪˈsiːnaɪ/) or Eceni were a British tribe who inhabited an area of East Anglia corresponding roughly to the modern-day county of Norfolk between the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD. Archaeological evidence of the Iceni includes torcs heavy rings of gold, silver or electrum worn around the neck and shoulders. The Iceni began producing coins circa 10 BC. Their coins were a distinctive adaptation of the Gallo- Belgic "face/horse" design, and in some early issues, most numerous near Norwich, the horse was replaced with a boar. Some coins are inscribed ECENI, making them the only coin-producing group to use their tribal name on coins. Selection from www.wikipedia.org 12
Coin Rubbing & Print Composition Rubric A. Artwork demonstrates beginning skill in creating a rubbing. 1 Does not meet Expectations Rubbings are sloppy and coins cannot be identified. 2 Approaching Expectations Some coins show detail, but not all can be easily identified. 3 Meets Expectations Most coin rubbings show enough detail to be identified. 4 Exceeds Expectations Rubbings of all coins show intricate detail. Total Score B. Artwork demonstrates beginning skill in creating a print. C. Value of coins in composition is calculated accurately. Coin design cannot be identified. The amount shown is incorrect with no work to show how the answer was obtained. Print uses excessive or not enough ink and coin design is difficult to identify. The total amount is incorrect but the process to get there is correct. Most of the design can be deciphered. The overall total is correct, but student does not show work. Print shows intricate detail of coin design. The total value of each kind of coin is calculated and the overall total amount is correct. 13