Positivity Prints

Positivity Prints

3rd Grade

Before beginning their investigation into printmaking, third graders spent some time manipulating the elements and principles of art.

 

Students worked with partners to arrange paper scraps into compositions demonstrating the elements and principles.  Some groups created narratives, while many organized their pieces into abstract compositions.

Next up, students experimented with using the elements and principles in monoprinting.  Mono printing is any printmaking in which the image can only be made one time.  We used plexiglass, paint, and found objects to create our monoprints.

We then switched gears to look at some public art.   We used CMA's ODIP (observe, describe, interpret, prove) to look closely at the image below.

Students came up with so many unique interpretations of this image!  Read some here:

Always have care in your heart.  Grow your heart bigger.  Filling up your heart just like filling up your bucket.  Growing love.   There is only one color part, so it looks like love or color was missing from the person's life and they are trying to grow love.  Starting the cycle of life.

Why put it on a wall?  For more people to see.  In a museum you have to pay, so maybe they wanted people to see it for free.

We then looked work by another artist, Dallas Clayton, who also creates a lot of public art and art that has a positive message.  

Students shared their favorites, and how they made them feel.  They then began creating their own positive artworks to display around the school!   

The collographs were created by glueing foam letters to cardboard.  Students were challenged to write their words and letters backwards so that they would be readable in the final print- very tricky!  But they persevered and created many uplifting artworks!

We hope our art has a positive effect on you!

This lesson was inspired by http://thomaselementaryart.blogspot.com/2015/07/3rd-grade-collagraph-quote-prints.html

Woven Mandalas

Woven Mandalas

2nd Grade

Wow!  A lot went into the creation of these works by second grade artworks including an investigation into mandalas, radial design and weaving.  We began by engaging in a close looking activity with the image below.

Students were shown this image, revealed to them one square at a time, as they noted observations and made guesses about what they were looking at.  Eventually, the photo in its entirety was revealed.  This process allows us to slow down, look for details, support our opinions and see how different our ideas can be when we only have some of the information.  Our thoughts of rugs, castles, and cakes changed as we were provided with more information.

We then discussed sand mandalas, thought about why people might make them, and viewed a time-lapse video of one being created.  It's really amazing to watch if you never have before!

Tibetan monks work together to make these beautifully intricate designs out of colored sand.  This process can be very meditative, providing a chance to slow the mind, and focus on the present.  Students were very surprised to learn that after a mandala is complete, it is swept away!

Mandalas thus can represent life, and the idea that nothing is permanent.  

Students then created their own temporary artworks, collaborating and using radial symmetry.  Each group used random objects to create their own unique creation.

Many artists from different cultures use radial design in their work.

During the next class, students compared and contrasted a traditional sand mandala with a contemporary artwork by Korean artist, Joong Keun Lee.

Some students liked how Joong Jeun Lee incorporated people into his design and also created an optical illusion.   Students then created and painted their own radial designs on cardboard circles. 

Finally, we turned our cardboard circles into looms and created radial weavings.  This process can be very challenging when first learning, but after students got it, many couldn't get enough!  I heard students comment on how relaxing weaving is, and also one exclamation that, "I could do this all day and never get bored."  Our process and art shows that art can make you think, can connect others, can relax you, can challenge you, and can provide accomplishment and beauty.

Mythological Creatures

Papier-mâché Creatures 
Inspired by Mythology

For this unit, 4th graders expanded on their classroom study of mythological creatures.  Students had the choice of imagining a new creature, or creating one that they had learned about in class.   When the sculptures were completed, they were displayed as part of the 4th grade poetry cafe.   Some students even wrote poems about the creatures they built!  

There are many steps to creating paper-mache sculptures, read on to see how we made them.

The Process

Constructing the Armature.  (Think: the skull)

During this step, students were challenged to think in three dimensions, and to create a structure showing form.

Paper-mache:  newspaper and tissue paper
We thought of this layer as the "skin."  This layer adds strength, holds the sculpture together, and makes a layer on which to paint.  We also used tissue paper as a way to apply color to the sculptures.

Painting and Embellishments!
Students added personality to their creations with paint, feathers, yarn, glitter and more.

Final Artworks
The result of all their hard work, problem solving, and imagination!

Shell Creatures

1st Grade Shell Creatures

Creative Play

Children learn as they play. Most importantly, in play children learn how to learn.

~ O. FRED DONALDSON

First graders began their shell creature exploration by shifting their perspective and  imagining what it would be like to live in a shell.  Some students thought it would be difficult, because you would always have to be looking for a new home, someone might try to take your home, and you wouldn't be able to reach things that humans can.  Others thought it might be cool because you have your own hiding space right on your back and it might look rainbow and shiny on the inside!

We then watched Marcel the Shell explain their perspective on life as a shell:

Next, came the creative play!

Creative play is an essential part of learning.  "Creative Play begins with inspiration and culminates in the sharing of an original artifact made by the child using whatever tools and materials are available. In this process, kids open up their minds to what’s possible, take chances, solve problems, collaborate and become better creative thinkers and doers. These are the critical “21st century skills” the whole world is talking about."

http://imagination.org/why-creativity/power-of-creative-play/

Students each chose a shell and utilized art materials to create a creature.  They created environments for them, played with them, and photographed them in the different scenes.  I hope these shell creatures are continuing to inspire imaginative pursuits at home!

Shell person!  This artist transformed her shell in a very different way than her peers.  Thinking flexibly!

The gang's all here!

This class really explored roof-making.  #influenceandcollaboration