Mrs. Tweedie
July 2010

Feel the top of your desk. How does it feel?

How do these things feel?

Texture
The way something feels is due in part to its texture. Desks are smooth, roads are rough, cactuses are prickly, cats are furry, and basketballs are bumpy. Texture is caused by the surface features on an object-how far parts of the surface extend up or down from the surface, and how the features are organized.

Coin Rubbings
This penny is a textured object. I can put it under a piece of paper, hold it very still, and rub the paper over the object with a pencil. Let’s see how it works. (Demonstrate penny rubbing.)

Your Turn
Practice the technique using a pencil or a crayon and a penny.

Materials
 You will need:
 Pennies
 Paper
 Crayons
 Colored pencils
 Time: 10 minutes

Discuss the Rubbing Technique
The technique that you used to reveal features on coins is called rubbing. Rubbing often shows textures on an object that are hard or impossible to see in any other way. What you see is a pattern, or design, from the object being rubbed. A pattern is not a texture but a representation, or picture, of a texture.

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Questions:
What features of the penny can you see by rubbing?
Which tool, the crayon or the pencil, do you think is better for making the rubbing of the coin? Why?
How did you rub the coin? What technique did you use?
How does your rubbing style make a difference in the pattern that you make?
What happened to the pattern if the coin moved as you were rubbing?

Make More Rubbings Activity
You will use the Rubbing Samples Sheet to collect patterns of textured objects using rubbings.
Materials:
 Rubbing Samples (No. 2-Student Sheet)
 Set of objects
 Time: 15 minutes
Teacher demonstrates how to place one of the circles over a textured object and rub only inside the circle.

Discuss the Student Sheets
 Which materials made the most interesting rubbings?
 What can you see now that was hard to see when you looked at the material directly?
Rubbing is a good technique for recording textures and patterns that are difficult to see.

Word Bank technique-a way of doing something, a method or procedure.
texture-the surface features of a material or object. Texture can often be felt, but fine texture is revealed visually.
pattern-a design, how something is arranged.

Summary
How can rubbings help you learn more about an object’s surface?
(Teacher can read: Creative Solutions)

Leaf Rubbings
What might be revealed if we made rubbings of leaves?

What is the function of each part?

Venation Patterns
The pattern that the veins make on the leaf is called a venation pattern. There are three basic patterns of leaf venation.

Venation Patterns
Parallel
Parallel leaves have veins that look like many straight lines all running in the same direction from the base to the tip.

Venation Patterns
Palmate
Palmate leaves have several main veins that all start from one point near the base. The veins resemble the palm of the hand with fingers extending in different directions.

Venation Patterns
Pinnate
Pinnate leaves have one main vein with many large veins that branch off sideways all along the main vein. The veins look like a feather.

Leaf Rubbing Activity
Students will make a crayon or pencil rubbing of each kind of leaf in the bag. Students will identify the type of venation pattern of each leaf rubbed.
Materials:
 1 Bag of leaves
 Sheets of white paper (4)
 Crayons/ Colored Pencils

Parallel Palmate Pinnate

Word Bank blade-The flat part of the leaf.
veins-The raised lines on the leaf.
venation pattern-The design of the leaf veins.

Summary
How can the rubbing technique help us learn more about leaves?
(Teacher can read: Looking at Leaves and Rubbings)

(Teacher can read: A Close Look at the World)

Shoe Rubbings Experiment
These are the shoes in my closet.

Shoe Rubbings Experiment
1. Croc
2. Tennis Shoe
3. High Heeled
Shoe
4. Slipper
5. Walking Boot

Rubbing Inventions
Can you come up with some other ways to use rubbings?
1. Invent a sorting/matching game.
2. Invent a way to color a map using rubbings.
3. Invent a way to find out something about shoes.
4. Invent an art project using rubbings.
(Teacher can read: A Self-Made Inventor)