Lesson Title: Kanji
Course: Foundations of Art
Grade: 9-12

Objectives: As a result of instruction, students will be able to…
1. Recognize Kanji and their meanings.
2. Choose a Kanji character that resembles its meaning.
3. Sketch ideas for a transformation of a word in Kanji into what it means, using photographic references. Change the Kanji’s form only slightly to resemble its meaning but so the Kanji is still recognizable.
4. Blend with colored pencils by overlapping colors and using the colorless blender, making sure not to leave the paper showing.

Vocabulary:
Katakana- An angular script made up of 46 basic yet distinctive characters. It is most commonly used for foreign names, borrowed foreign words, company names and new words in Japanese.
Hirigana- A smoother script made up of 46 basic characters that can be very similar to one another and have an equivalent in Katakana. It is most used for simple words, conjugations at the ends of verbs, and participles of speech.
Kanji- A complicated script made up of thousands of Chinese ideograms brought to Japan by Buddhist monks. Many of them are simplified versions of their Chinese origins. Each character represents an idea, not a sound and they often have more than one possible reading. It is most used for names of places and people, nouns, verbs and adjectives.

Materials:
Pencils
Paper
Colored pencils
Websites: http://japanese.about.com/library/weekly/aa120200.htm
   http://www.decalzone.com/cutout/lettering/kanji1a.shtml

Motivation:
1. Teacher will show a sample of the Kanji representing dragon.
2. Students will look up Kanji on the 2 websites and print one out.
3. Students will sketch the transformation of the Kanji in their sketchbook, adding small things to the form of the Kanji without changing the shape of the Kanji so much so that it is not recognizable.
4. Teacher will demonstrate blending with colored pencils.
5. Students will practice colored pencils on the sketch in their sketchbook.

Procedure:
1. Students will sketch their final draft on 9” x 12” drawing paper.
2. Students will color with colored pencils.
3. Students will cut a frame for their piece and place the Kanji and the English translation on the frame.
4. Students will fill out a self-evaluation form.

Evaluation: To what extent did students…
1. Demonstrate knowledge of Kanji characters.
2. Choose a character that resembles its meaning.
3. Successfully transform the character so it resembles its meaning but is still visible as a character.
4. Blend and shade well with the colored pencil and make sure no paper is showing.