Ideas and Inventions: Rubbings

Mrs. Tweedie

July 2010

Investigation 1: RubbingsPart 1.A: Introducing Rubbings

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

How do these things feel?

TextureThe 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 RubbingsThis 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 TurnPractice the technique using a pencil or a crayon and a penny.

MaterialsYou will need:PenniesPaperCrayonsColored pencils

Time: 10 minutes

Discuss the Rubbing TechniqueThe 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.

Questions:1. What features of the penny can you

see by rubbing?2. Which tool, the crayon or the pencil,

do you think is better for making the rubbing of the coin? Why?

3. How did you rub the coin? What technique did you use?

4. How does your rubbing style make a difference in the pattern that you make?

5. What happened to the pattern if the coin moved as you were rubbing?

Investigation 1: RubbingsPart 1.B: Make More Rubbings

Make More Rubbings ActivityYou 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 SheetsWhich 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 Banktechnique-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.

SummaryHow can rubbings help you learn more about an object’s surface?

(Teacher can read: Creative Solutions)

Investigation 1: RubbingsPart 2: Leaf Rubbings

Leaf RubbingsWhat might be revealed if we made rubbings of leaves?

Parts of a LeafWhat is the function of each part?

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

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

Venation Patterns

PalmatePalmate 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

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

Venation Patterns

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

Leaf Rubbing Activity

Venation Pattern Aid

Parallel Palmate Pinnate

Word Bankblade-The flat part of the leaf.

veins-The raised lines on the leaf.

venation pattern-The design of the leaf veins.

SummaryHow can the rubbing technique help us learn more about leaves?

(Teacher can read: Looking at Leaves and Rubbings)

Investigation 1: RubbingsPart 3: Shoe Rubbings

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

These are the shoes in my closet.

Shoe Rubbings Experiment

Can your team match the shoe with the correct rubbing?

Shoe Rubbings Experiment

1. Croc2. Tennis Shoe3. High

Heeled Shoe

4. Slipper5. Walking

Boot

Rubbing InventionsCan you come up with some other ways to use rubbings?

(Teacher can read: A Self-Made Inventor)

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.