Fourth Grade
Extraordinary Foods Books
In this unit plan, students created a folded book about their favorite food. Students learned about shape, composition, and blending with colored pencils to create their drawings. Through design, students contemplated: What makes food extraordinary?
Students finished this unit with a folded book with a drawing of their favorite food, a second drawing of what their food would look like under a microscope, and a written reflection piece.
Student Work
Brief Overview
Big Idea: Ordinary to Extraordinary
Essential Question: How can we transform ordinary foods into something extraordinary?
Focus Artists/Concepts: Joel Penkman, Carl Warner, Benjamin Hepton, Microscopes, and Looking Closer.
Final Artwork: Folded and Illustrated Book
Focus Artist
Joël Penkman
Joël Penkman is a New Zealand–British artist, painting semi-photorealistic, contemporary still-life and a whole lot of food. She lives in a village outside of Liverpool, England, where she shares a home studio with her husband and her cat. She grew up in New Zealand where she studied Graphic Design at Canterbury University.
A lot of her work is in egg tempera. This is a time-consuming medium for which she grinds her own paint and craft gesso boards. She doesn't exclusively paint food, but she enjoys it and other unexpected subjects. She hopes her pictures will make people smile.