Baseball: All American
Lesson Theme: Baseball: All American
Subject: Visual Art
Integrated Subject: Social Studies
Grade Level: First Grade
Projected Time: One 50 minute class period + MLB Baseball Game + One 50 minute class period
Subject: Visual Art
Integrated Subject: Social Studies
Grade Level: First Grade
Projected Time: One 50 minute class period + MLB Baseball Game + One 50 minute class period
Lesson Overview
Overview: In this lesson, students will explore the integration of basic economics and visual art to portray the theme of baseball, an American symbol. By attending a Major League Baseball (MLB) game, trading currency for goods and then drawing what was traded and received, students will discern what is a good, service, how to trade, and illustrate the trading process.
Essential Questions:
1. Why is baseball a symbol of America?
2. What else is there to look at in an MLB Stadium besides the field?
3. How is economics and baseball related?
Essential Questions:
1. Why is baseball a symbol of America?
2. What else is there to look at in an MLB Stadium besides the field?
3. How is economics and baseball related?
Visual Culture Component
Advertisements are all around us. Statistics show that the average person is exposed to an average of 3,000 advertisements, print or digital, a day. Advertisements have a strong influence on the goods and services we consume and trade. A part of American culture and each MLB ballpark, advertisements are a component of visual culture that students need to discern. Having students illustrate a ballpark advertisement that influences their decision to buy a ballpark good opens their mind to a new type of art, its interpretation, and its influence.
Questions to ask students:
1. How many advertisements do you see?
2. Do you see different goods in the advertisements you see?
3. Does each advertisement use different colors?
4. Are all the advertisements the same size?
Questions to ask students:
1. How many advertisements do you see?
2. Do you see different goods in the advertisements you see?
3. Does each advertisement use different colors?
4. Are all the advertisements the same size?
Vocabulary / Academic Language
Economics:
Currency (U.S.) - a system of money in general use in a particular country aka money.
Goods - objects that are capable of satisfying people’s wants (e.g., homes, cars, furniture, food, clothing).
Services - actions that are capable of satisfying people’s wants (e.g., medical care, restaurants, hotels, lawn mowing, babysitting).
Trade - transfer of the ownership of goods or services from one person or entity to another in exchange for other goods or services or for money.
Art:
Advertisement - action of making generally known; a calling to the attention of the public.
Illustration - to make something clear with drawings, pictures, or other artwork intended for explanation.
Visual Literacy - the ability to apprehend or interpret pictures or other visual images.
Currency (U.S.) - a system of money in general use in a particular country aka money.
Goods - objects that are capable of satisfying people’s wants (e.g., homes, cars, furniture, food, clothing).
Services - actions that are capable of satisfying people’s wants (e.g., medical care, restaurants, hotels, lawn mowing, babysitting).
Trade - transfer of the ownership of goods or services from one person or entity to another in exchange for other goods or services or for money.
Art:
Advertisement - action of making generally known; a calling to the attention of the public.
Illustration - to make something clear with drawings, pictures, or other artwork intended for explanation.
Visual Literacy - the ability to apprehend or interpret pictures or other visual images.
Objectives
Students will:
1. Locate advertisements around a ballpark and select the one that has the most meaningful good to the student. Back in the classroom, students will draw and color the advertisement and the good that it sells. (6PE)
2. Demonstrate how to trade money for a good. (Families Now and Long Ago, Near and Far, Economics , Markets, 13. People trade to obtain goods and services they want)
3. Illustrate an advertisement on paper to show the class. (4PR)
4. Illustrate the product on paper that the student purchased to show the class. (4PR)
5. Explain the selected advertisement, good, and the trade to the class. (4RE)
1. Locate advertisements around a ballpark and select the one that has the most meaningful good to the student. Back in the classroom, students will draw and color the advertisement and the good that it sells. (6PE)
2. Demonstrate how to trade money for a good. (Families Now and Long Ago, Near and Far, Economics , Markets, 13. People trade to obtain goods and services they want)
3. Illustrate an advertisement on paper to show the class. (4PR)
4. Illustrate the product on paper that the student purchased to show the class. (4PR)
5. Explain the selected advertisement, good, and the trade to the class. (4RE)
Standards
Social Studies: Grade One (page 13)
Theme: Families Now and Long Ago, Near and Far
Strand - Economics
Topic - Markets
Content Statement - 13. People trade to obtain goods and services they want.
Theme: Families Now and Long Ago, Near and Far
Strand - Economics
Topic - Markets
Content Statement - 13. People trade to obtain goods and services they want.
Visual Arts: Grade One (page 1)
Content Statement - 1
Cognitive & Creative Learning Processes-
6PE: Generate art making ideas from their daily experiences and the environment.
4PR: Create an artwork based on observation of familiar objects and scenes.
4RE: Explain how personal interests and experiences are reflected in the subject matter of artworks.
Content Statement - 1
Cognitive & Creative Learning Processes-
6PE: Generate art making ideas from their daily experiences and the environment.
4PR: Create an artwork based on observation of familiar objects and scenes.
4RE: Explain how personal interests and experiences are reflected in the subject matter of artworks.
Procedure
Contemporary Artist Connections
Tabitha Soren, the former face of MTV News’s 1992 Choose or Lose voting campaign is now art photographer with an exhibition about the American dream, or, more specifically, about baseball. She started shooting teams, minor league players, stadiums and other spaces players inhabit. She expanded her show to include memorabilia and even the pieces of bones pitchers had had removed from repetitive stress injuries in their shoulders. For Soren, baseball is a prime metaphor for the myth of the American dream — the romantic ideal of the itinerant achiever, the notion that failure leads to success, and the promise that fame and fortune guarantee happiness. “My art boils down to visualizing psychological states,” says Soren.
As one often surrounded by sports, Soren's work demonstrates to students artwork can form from daily experiences and the surrounding environment. (6PE)
As one often surrounded by sports, Soren's work demonstrates to students artwork can form from daily experiences and the surrounding environment. (6PE)
The National Pastime might seem out of synch with the high-end art world. At the Known Gallery in Los Angeles, "Out of Left Field" presents the work of two Los Angeles artists obsessed with baseball and with tweaking the conventions of the sport to suit their own idiosyncratic visions. This two person exhibition features Pat Riot and L.A. legend Bill Barminski. Pat's portion of the exhibition has large portraits of baseball players that appeared at first to be pointillist paintings. The points in these pictures are not paint. They are made with chewed bubblegum. As every baseball fan knows, just about every player in the game chews tobacco, sunflower seeds or bubblegum during the game.
Accompanying Pat Riot's exhibition in the Known Gallery's Project Space is an installation by Bill Barminski that celebrates offbeat moments in baseball history and revels in the ordinary fan's experience of the game on television at home. Barminski has recreated by hand a painted cardboard rendition of his Uncle's circa-1970 sports mancave. A mancave is an almost sacred space of the hardcore sports fan, usually adorned with memorabilia from his favorite teams and centered around the big screen television. But the origin of the mancave of today's luxury bachelor pads is much more proletariat. As Barminski constructs here, old television sets were hardly the high-definition wonders of today. Boxy and functional, Barminski has vintage game footage running with interruptions of some of his more anarchic art videos.
Riot and Barminski's work demonstrates to students how art can be created based on familiar objects and scenes. (4PR)
Accompanying Pat Riot's exhibition in the Known Gallery's Project Space is an installation by Bill Barminski that celebrates offbeat moments in baseball history and revels in the ordinary fan's experience of the game on television at home. Barminski has recreated by hand a painted cardboard rendition of his Uncle's circa-1970 sports mancave. A mancave is an almost sacred space of the hardcore sports fan, usually adorned with memorabilia from his favorite teams and centered around the big screen television. But the origin of the mancave of today's luxury bachelor pads is much more proletariat. As Barminski constructs here, old television sets were hardly the high-definition wonders of today. Boxy and functional, Barminski has vintage game footage running with interruptions of some of his more anarchic art videos.
Riot and Barminski's work demonstrates to students how art can be created based on familiar objects and scenes. (4PR)
Born in a small town outside of Montreal, Canada, Dwight Baird specialized in watercolors for over twenty years, and now works mostly in acrylics. In 1993 Baird turned to baseball and presented an extensive series of over fifty original pieces entitled For the Love of the Game, which covered all aspects of The National Pastime. In 1992 he was commissioned by Major League Baseball to complete three illustrations for the Major League Baseball All-Star Program for an article on Fantasy Baseball Camps. The cover concept for the 1994 Major League Baseball Program was taken from Baird's now classic image, At the Twilight's Last Gleaming which features a cropped image from neck to thigh of both National and American league players lined up for the pre-game National Anthem. As an avid baseball fan, Baird continues to create and sell his work today.
As a lifelong baseball fan, Baird's work demonstrates to students how personal interests and experiences can influence art series. (4RE)
As a lifelong baseball fan, Baird's work demonstrates to students how personal interests and experiences can influence art series. (4RE)
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Evaluation Assessment
Materials
For Teacher (and Chaperones):
For Students:
- Digital Camera/iPhone
- Printer Paper
- Printer
- Examples of Goods
- Examples of Advertisements
For Students:
- Colored Pencils/Crayons/Markers
- Drawing Paper (9in x 12in)
- Erasers
- $10 bill
Special Education Consideration
Considerations need to be made for those students with physical or cognitive disabilities. For this lesson, I would consult with a Special Education Teacher. Below are some thoughts:
- Ensure the MLB ballpark has handicap accessibility
- Reserve special seating if need be
- Have student select advertisement from a narrowed list and personal picture
- Have an assigned chaperone with student at all times, especially to facilitate trade
Resources
For more information on Ohio Education Standards:
Ohio Social Studies Standards
Ohio Visual Art Standards
For more information on the Contemporary Artists:
Tabitha Soren
Pat Riot and Bill Barminski
Dwight Baird
Ohio Social Studies Standards
Ohio Visual Art Standards
For more information on the Contemporary Artists:
Tabitha Soren
Pat Riot and Bill Barminski
Dwight Baird