Haley Phillips

Lesson Title: Coffee Filters and Markers

Big Idea: Color and Collaboration
Class Periods Required: 2, 30 minute sessions
Grade Level /Month: First Grade, Spring
Lesson Overview/Summary: In this lesson children will create coffee filter creations and be
able to choose what they want to do with their creations. This will be a very open-ended art
project for art sake.
Key Concept (s): Working with colors, paint, and water. Exploring how colors change when
water is added to them. Investigating why and how colors change colors.
Essential Questions (Found on the national visual arts standards chart):
How do artists and designers learn from trial and error?
How does refining artwork affect its meaning to the viewer?
How does engaging in creating art enrich peoples lives?
What responsibilities come with the freedom to create?
What methods and processes are considered when preparing artwork for presentation, a
portfolio, or a collection?
Art Standards:
Creating: 1st Grade:
Collaboratively engage in exploration and imaginative play with materials.
Explore uses of materials and tools to create works of art or design.
Presenting: 1st Grade: Ask and answer questions such as where, when, why, and how artwork
should be prepared for presentation or preservation.
Responding: 1st Grade: Select and describe works of art that illustrate daily life experiences of
oneself and others.
Connecting: 1st Grade: Understand that people from different places and time have made art for a
variety of reasons
Core Academic Standards (Common Core State Standards and Missouri State Standards):
Common Core:
Reason with shapes and their attributes
CCSS.Math.Content.1.G.A.3
Partition circles and rectangles into two and four equal shares, describe the shares using the
words halves, fourths, and quarters, and use the phrases half of, fourth of, and quarter of.
Describe the whole as two of, or four of the shares. Understand for these examples that
decomposing into more equal shares creates smaller shares.

Haley Phillips
Visual Arts:
STRAND II: Elements and Principles (EP)
1. Select and use elements of art for their effect in communicating ideas through artwork
D. Identify and use texture
STRAND II: Elements and Principles (EP)
1. Select and use elements of art for their effect in communicating ideas through artwork
E. Identify and use primary colors
STRAND II: Elements and Principles (EP)
2. Select and use principles of art for their effect in communicating ideas through artwork
A. Identify and demonstrate the concept of middle or center
STRAND I: Product/Performance
2. Select and apply three-dimensional media, techniques, and processes to communicate ideas
and solve challenging visual art problems
A. Fold paper and identify folded edge
Content Areas Integrated:
Art
Math (folding coffee filter in half 3 times)
Design
Identify & define common vocabulary/concepts that connect the art form with the other
identified subject area(s):
Color, combine, movement, watery, texture, blend, circle, radial, pattern, mix, travel
Procedure:
1. Children will receive a coffee filter and washable markers.
2. Their instructions will be to color the whole coffee filter in anyway they want and using
any colors.
3. They will then be instructed to fold their coffee filters in half three times. The coffee
filter will look like a little triangle.
4. Each child will receive a small cup of water. They can dip the tip of the coffee filter in
the water and watch what happens.
5. The water will travel up the filter hopefully moving throughout the whole filter. Children
may tilt their filter upside down to speed up the travel of the water.
6. The water will mix the colors together, creating a cool design.
7. Children will let their filters dry. They can do as many filters as they have time for.
8. The next day, they can create things with their filters. Most likely children will work
together and get ideas from one another. Some things I think they may make: butterflies,
flowers, signs, banners.

Haley Phillips
What prior knowledge will this lesson require/draw upon?
Children will need to have prior knowledge about folding and following directions. They will
have had experience using markers.
What activities will you use to engage students in imagining, exploring, and/or
experimenting in this lesson?
I will hold a brainstorming session for the class to brainstorm ideas of what they can create out of
their colored coffee filters. This will be engaging for children and help those children who are
having a hard time thinking of things and need somewhere to start. Holding a class brainstorm
session could lead to many different exciting outcomes.
How will this lesson encourage students to solve problems in divergent ways?
This lesson will encourage students to solve problems that emerge while working on their coffee
filter. For example, if the water is not traveling to the very top of the coffee filter, the children
may need to problem solve to figure out how to get the water to travel all the way up. Also,
depending on what children decide to create from their coffee filters, there will be many
problems that arrive that they will need to work through.

What opportunities/activities will students be given to revise/reflect and improve their

understandings and their work?
Since this is such an open-ended project, I think it really provides children to revise and reflect
on their work. Since they will not be rushed for time or pressured to make something specific, I
feel like they will automatically revise their work as they go to make it exactly what they
envision it to be.
What opportunities/activities will you provide for students to share their
learning/understanding/work in this lesson?
After everyones projects are finished, we would have a sort of art show to exhibit all of the
different creations from colored coffee filters. I feel like the children would be very proud of
their creations and excited to show them off to their peers. Children will be able to teach their
peers how they made their project as well as learn from others about how they made theirs.
How will you adapt the various aspects of this lesson to differently-abled students?
Children who finish their original colored coffee filter with ease can create more or they can
choose to help others who are having a harder time. The beauty of this lesson is that it is very
open-ended and student guided. Children can create things based on their ability and based on
what is interesting to them.