Happy Valentines Day from the PS 250 Art Studio!
I
was given a coverage today for class 5-308; I will still see this class for
their normally scheduled class on Friday afternoon, but because of scheduling,
the "coverage" meant that I was fortunate enough to get them a second
time this week (today!). However, I did not want this class to get ahead of the
other 5th grade classes, so I decided not to do Friday's lesson today. This
meant I had total freedom to do anything I wanted with them for 45 minutes. Because
today is Valentine's Day, I felt like it might be fun for them to do a
Valentines-theme project. However, I did not want to do a
"cookie-cutter"craft project with no learning involved, so I did a
bit of research.
After
a little time on Google, I decided to talk to students about Victorian
Valentines and the various ways people in the mid 19th century would create
valentines (see website for more info on this:
http://home.kendra.com/victorianrituals/Victor/val.htm). I explained that most
of the valentines gifts back then were not bought, but were made (generally)
from the simple material of paper. On my smartboard, I gave them the following
challenge:
"How
might you create a unique valentine only using ONE piece each of RED, WHITE,
and BLACK paper (12" X 18")?"
I
then created a Smart Board presentation and prompted them with the following:
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Image located at
http://www.wmagazine.com/artdesign/2007/03/kara_walker
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Might you make a collage (of bits and pieces of paper) similar to the style of the "Heart" paintings by Jim Dine?
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Images found at
http://novakart.blogspot.com/2009/06/jim-dine-heart-paintings-month-of-june.html
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Might you add some words, like in Shepard Fairey's poster?
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Image found
athttp://obeygiant.com/headlines/obama
|
I
discussed that the format was up to them (card, flat art, etc.) and they should
make each of their valentines as unique as the person they would be giving them
to. We also discussed that in collage, we can change paper a variety of ways
and add the paper in bits and pieces to create a whole. They just finished
their book projects last week, so collage is still fresh in their minds, which
was helpful. I reviewed using a pencil to help with drawing a silhouette or
outline of a letter, only if completely necessary (generally when there is more
time, and not just one 45-minute class, I discourage students "falling
back" on drawing when they are doing collage; if they need a shape, they
need to learn how to cut it, or at least piece bits of paper together to make
the shape, not use a pencil to draw it first.).
Here
are a few pictures of the 5th graders hard at work:
I
was (pleasantly) surprised by how differently each student approached this
project. Some students focused on exploring the materials (see the pop-outs in
the valentine above), while others had a clear direction in mind from the start
(see the vase of flowers in the first picture above).
I
hope you enjoy the unique, creative and lovely
Valentines class 5-308 made as much as I do...Enjoy!
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| Cindy, 5-308 |
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| Gustavo, 5-308 |
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| Kiara V., 5-308 |
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| Shamia, 5-308 |
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| Skylynne, 5-308 |
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| Clyde, 5-308 |
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