Fifth Grade Art Smart Lesson Plan #2 Norman Rockwell

Project Summary: Students will create a puzzle piece of one of the four freedom prints which will be put together to form a puzzle titled Frrdeom of Expression.

Art examples: Rockwell’s Four Freedom prints

Materials needed: white cardstock copied and cut into puzzle pieces, puzzles are in Ziploc bags in box, posterboard to mount puzzles, pencil, colored pencils, Mac computer to share You Tube videos

Things to do before class: Copy and cut puzzle pieces so there are 5 complete puzzles per class, place in Ziploc bags

Lesson plan: Norman Rockwell was born in 1894 in NY. He experienced 84 years of some of our country’s hardest times: the Great Depression, WW1&2, The Korean War, Vietnam, the Cold War and Civil Rights Oppression. During his lifetime 8 new states were added to the union and 17 presidents were elected. It’s amazing to me that someone who grew up in the middle of NYC during such times of pain and turmoil could create such contrasting works of art.

N.R. is actually known as one of the greatest “illustrators” in America. He is considered to be a great “storyteller” with a brush, and a “documentary” artist. He had an extreme talent for showing America’s culture – our way of life – or at least the way he and many others wanted it to be.

Some of Rockwell’s most famous pieces were commissioned covers for a magazine called, The Saturday Evening Post. He completed over 300 works for them, each one taking approximately 6 months time to complete!

In fact, Norman Rockwell’s painting process was very time consuming. He would make rough sketches of what he would like

to paint. Then he would decide on a model (person for the painting) and gather materials and props to include – for example, books, vases, eyeglasses, etc. He would then have a photographer take dozens and dozens of photographs – sometimes 50 – 100 of both the objects and the models. After they were developed he’d spread them all out on his studio floor and refer to them as he carefully and meticulously drew them onto canvas. After he had his outlines he would fill them in and complete his final masterpiece.

When the United States entered WW2 in December 1941, Rockwell wanted to help with the war effort. He remembered a speech that Rockwell had heard President Franklin Roosevelt give to the American public. It took Rockwell seven months to complete the four paintings. They were then used as the cover of a popular magazine called The Saturday Evening Post. They were so popular that there was a national campaign where the government collaborated with The Post and went on a tour of 16 cities and raised 133 million dollars in war bonds. These bonds were used to help the nation pay for the war. These freedoms include the Freedom of Fear, Speech, Worship, and Want.

You TUBE – Show video of Franklin Roosevelt’s Four Freedom’s Speech (2 minute version)

Discuss paintings

Freedom of Speech – Look how the man is standing and everyone is sitting. The dark background frames him and all the people are looking at him. His mouth is open and he has made the ears slightly bigger because they are listening to him. The clothing is very normal, it makes it very realistic. Rockwell got the idea for this painting at a town hall meeting where a man was speaking his mind and although people disagreed they were still listening to him.

Freedom from Want – This is a Thanksgiving dinner. The two people holding the turkey are framed by the light of the window. The turkey is the focal point and there is a repeated oval shape throughout the painting. The partial face on the right invites us into the picture and lets us feel that we are sitting at the table. Rockwell claimed that the turkey featured in Freedom from Want was, in fact, the Rockwell family’s Thanksgiving turkey. Rockwell used many of his friends and family in this painting. The woman serving theThanksgiving turkey in Freedom from Want was the Rockwell family cook, and he also included his wife, Mary.

Freedom to Worship – He wanted to show both unity and diversity at the same time which is not easy. They are all facing the same direction and involved in the act of worshipping. There is diversity because of the different props – a rosary, hat, book and ring. There are people of different ages both male and female, light and dark colors. He takes time to add texture to the hair and hands.

Freedom from Fear – This picture shows a couple tucking in their children while the newspaper reports of bombing and terror elsewhere. The parents can be confident of an untroubled night. In the cities at this time, there were often air raids and blackout conditions. The people could not have lights on outside and they had to have black curtains on inside to block the light from showing through. But in Vermont, this was not the case. Notice the light and the reflection coming up from the stairs and the windows are uncovered to allow light to come in.

Even though times have changed in the last 70 years those freedoms are still important today. At this time there are

different issues and problems in our world but all are still important.

Share You tube video – Dan Nance has recreated two of the paintings to present time, great example to show kids

Rockwell was a talented artist and his paintings are very famous. Sadly, Norman Rockwell died in 1978. But his works and their impact on Americans will continue for centuries to come.

Norman Rockwell’s work has been reproduced more often than Michelangelo, Picasso and Rembrandt combined!

Today we are going to make our own interpretation of Rockwell’s four freedoms. I have taken a Rockwell painting and cut it into five pieces. You will only be responsible for coloring your fifth of the puzzle. It does not have to be perfect but should include the detail that Rockwell included in his own paintings. Sketch it with a pencil and then we will use colored pencils to color it in. We will then put the pieces together to form a print. I would like to call this a fifth freedom, the Freedom of Expression. You all have different ways of expressing yourself, this ideal would make Rockwell very proud of all of you.

Try to limit lecture to 15 minutes to give kids sufficient time to color. Once each child has their piece have them sketch with a pencil the design, focusing on the big picture with details to follow if time. Encourage students to fill the page with color so that it flows with the other puzzle pieces once put together. You may need to combine classes to complete puzzles if the class size is not divisible by 5. Once puzzles are complete, collect and take home to glue together onto posterboard and title with “Freedom of Expression” and return to teachers for display.

Parent letter: Dear Fifth Grade Parent, This week in Art Smart we learned about Norman Rockwell and his historical paintings, The Four Freedoms. Rockwell was the most famous American Artist of the 20th century and experienced some of our country’s hardest times. We discussed how artists use their art to express their ideas and how Rockwell was a true storyteller with a brush. The Four Freedoms were inspired by President Roosevelt’s 1941 speech to Congress. These freedoms were the freedom of speech, freedom from fear, freedom from want and freedom of worship. The students recreated a puzzle piece of Rockwell’s Four Freedom prints which will be put together as a class montage. This puzzle will represent the freedom of expression, an important freedom in our country today. Thank you for letting us share art with your child.

Sincerely, Kim Fronk and Kathy VanSpankeren