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Lesson Plan Backyard Blitz

Lesson Procedure

1. Art has many forms. We see it all around us in paintings, human form and nature. It is within our grasp to create and re-create art. It’s not as difficult as one would think. In this lesson you will be in the artist’s seat. Your task is to create an aesthetic landscape design for a backyard.
2. Throughout the planning of the landscape, you must consider texture, area, levels, soil and suitable plant species. Using the World Wide Web, gather information and images about plants, trees and additional materials such as paving, fountains and anything else that comes to your imagination. When selecting plants, consider climate, temperatures and environmental factors.
3. Using the information gathered from the internet and other source materials, write a report complete with images for each plant you have selected.

4. Now that you have selected your plants and materials, its time to bring it all together. Using Microsoft Word, create your landscape design using shapes filled with colour coded patterns to represent plants, shrubs and trees. (See Sample file called landscape.doc)
5. Create a key that explains what each colour filled shape represents. Hyperlink each shape in the key to the reports you created in Microsoft Word to create an interactive experience for your audience. See How to Create a Landscape Design in Word for instructions.

6. Share your landscape design with your fellow students and teacher. Have fun learning with technology! Who knows…you may be the next Jamie Drury.

Assessment

When assessing student learning consider:

• Did the student demonstrate an understanding of design principles including colour, practicality, environmental factors?
• Did the student successfully use technology to convey ideas, concepts and information?

How to create a landscape design in Microsoft Word

Before you Begin

Prior to beginning this tutorial, students will need to research their subject matter, saving any images to be used in the presentation to file. Images may be scanned or downloaded from the internet.

To save an image from the internet:

1. Place cursor on the image to be saved
2. Right click the mouse and select Save Picture As
3. Locate the folder to which images are to be stored and click Save

TIP: Create a folder to which all images to be used in the presentation will be stored. This is not only good work practice, but will help greatly when locating images at a later date. When saving an image to file from the internet, you may like to rename the image to something that you will quickly associate with as pictures from the net are often named with letters and numbers relevant to the site they came from.

How to Begin

1. Select Start > Programs > Microsoft Word
2. From the View menu, select Toolbars and ensure that the Drawing toolbar is selected

NOTE: You need to ensure that the drawing canvas is turned off to enable you to use the drawing feature more efficiently. From the Tools menu, select Options, then from the General tab, turn off the drawing canvas by deselecting it.

3. Deselect the option for Automatically create drawing canvas when inserting AutoShapes
4. To work on a full page view, from the View menu, select Zoom and change the size of the screen to suit
5. Using the AutoShape buttons from the drawing toolbar, draw selected objects onto the page to represent the elements of your design such as plants and objects

5. From the Fill Colour drop down menu, select Fill Effects

6. Select the Patterns tab. Select colours for the background and foreground to suit the object being represented. For example, we have selected appropriate patterns and colour to represent grass, plants and paving. Click OK

7. Change the colours to suit
8. Continue drawing and colouring shapes to complete your landscape design, as shown here.

Creating the Information Key

An information key needs to be created to show which plants are represented by particular shapes and colours.

1. Draw a text box to create the information key in

2. Type in the names of the plants used in the design plan
3. Copy and resize shapes to fit into the key according to the plant or object depicted

4. From the File menu, select Save

Compiling Information Reports

We are going to create information reports, which provide detailed information pertaining to each plant used in the design. Research should be conducted prior to this aspect of the activity and any images or information to be used saved to file.

1. Select File> New
2. Type in information under relevant headings such as scientific name, description, soil requirements etc.
3. Select Insert > Picture > From File
4. Locate saved images from file and click Insert

5. Highlight the inserted image, then from the drawing toolbar, select Draw > Text Wrapping
6. From the text wrapping menu, choose an appropriate format to suit
7. Continue to create information reports for all items used in the design plan
8. Save completed information reports to the folder created earlier

Creating the Hyperlinks

Links need to be created from the symbols in the key, to the related information reports. It is important that all information is stored in the same folder to ensure that the links work effectively.

1. Open the document containing the landscape design
2. Highlight one of the items contained in the key
3. From the Insert menu, select Hyperlink
4. Select Existing File or Web Page from the side menu, then click on Current Folder

5. All documents stored in this folder will appear as a list. Select the corresponding document to which the link is to be created and click OK
6. Continue adding hyperlinks from each item listed in the key to the relevant information report document
7. Test your hyperlinks by running the cursor over each item in the key. You will be prompted to hold down the Ctrl key and click the mouse to activate the link
8. Your presentation is now ready to be viewed. Great job!