Installation Art!

Recently, Visual Arts worked on a collaborative unit that integrated both Performing Arts and the homeroom. Working with 3 different teams throughout a single unit proved to be a very intense, but I think, pretty incredible experience for the students. (And me, of course 😉 ). 

Our central idea, "Beliefs, values and ideas are represented and communicated through various forms of artistic expression", was made accessible through our different mediums. In VA, we worked with school and community values to create installations... The concept of "Installation Art" is not a super easy one for 10 year old's to grasp, but they actually did amazingly well. We studied artists like Ai Weiwei, Cornelia Parker, Kara Walker, Yayoi Kasuma among others, and then students narrowed down their choice of which type of installation art worked with their concept. Many groups chose some aspect the Environment, which they then transformed into an array of different types of installations. Check out some of our incredible students' show, where they displayed their learning and were able to talk to parents and teachers about their process and work.

Concept: Environment

Detail of above installation

Concept: Environmental Decay.

Concept: Environmental Beauty.

Concept: Environment: This one you had to go inside to check out.

Concept: Cleanliness in our School Community.

Grade 4 Community Mural

Grade 4's were working on a UOI called Sharing The Planet, so I decided to introduce them to International Street/Mural Art. We looked at artworks from famous street artists such as Banksy, Invader, Seth, Natalia Rak and many others. We discussed why street and public art is important to communities and cultures' representations, and what it means in a growing contemporary art world. The students then voted on 2 murals to emulate and appropriate into community artworks that we would co-create with a local school. Well, that didn't work out as well as we had hoped, but my students did get to meet some great kids from the community that they may never had interacted with but for the mural we all had in common. Surprisingly, both classes chose a street artist named Seth, but 2 different paintings. Here is a few snaps of our process.

Finding out/Sorting out

Going further

Making conclusions

Taking action

Paper making and Printmaking in Grade 3

So, I decided to delve into the world of Paper craft and hand printing. Why I decided to do this with 8-9 year old's is beyond me, but I felt they should learn these building blocks. What began/was meant to be an 8-10 week stand- alone unit merged into 2 different UOI's, but that actually worked in our favor. This Unit was an exercise in patience and rotation, because we essentially had to work in small groups to ensure everybody got a chance to learn everything. So we made stations, and made it happen somehow! We began with the history of paper making; looked at and felt many examples of different papers, and then learned how to make paper using natural materials we collected outside. We then moved on to learning about Monotypes and the history of Printmaking. We had a great critique on the Monotypes we created. Lastly, we learned how to make a screen print, and discovered why this method was important in Pop Culture and media today.

As the UOI was "How the World Works", students worked in small groups to discuss the central idea, "Art can be used to communicate ideas and experiences creatively". We talked about the manner in which mass production changed the way information was transferred and relayed to communities, and eventually the whole world. Students also learned about how lithography was accidentally discovered and how it really led the way to the first newspapers. Students researched and discovered the many different ways media is created from a Visual Arts standpoint.We had a lot of fun, and it was a huge learning curve for me too; in the sense that organization and management of 25+ students with one tiny sink, one mould and deckle and 3 large screenprinting screens is not an easy feat for one unit! Check out some of our hard work!

Getting the pulp into the mould and deckle.

Squeezing out all the water before letting the paper dry.

Monotypes

Ready for critique!

Screen printing own designs

Super- Realistic Portraits

Okay, so this title is not "super" accurate, as these students are in Grade 2, but for 7 year old's, I think they did pretty well! Students learned about different portraits and styles throughout history; but we paid special attention to portraits that reflected the subject (Frida Khalo) and Hyper- Realists, such as Chuck Close and others. We did this unit as a stand-alone, but it could easily be tailored to fit "Who We Are" in the PYP. I was interested in teaching them about dimensions of the human face, shading using colored pencils and realism more than anything else. So I took each student's photo and then blew them up to A3 size. They cut the photos in half (approximately- they are 7), began measuring the points of the face with rulers then got to work on the final draft after much planning and a smaller test run in their sketchbooks. They could choose to depict themselves, or a partner. This was an 8 week Unit, so scroll to the end to see what I did as a "going further" task/project. Here are a few of the more interesting results!

Most students chose to use colored pencil, but this student used chalk pastel, which I think was quite successful.

I love how he chose to incorporate elements of a different background than the mirror image, but still retain some of the original to make it seem realistic.

What I appreciate about this portrait is that even though it has realistic elements, it still shows the huge personality!

This one is my exemplar- not done by a 7 year old. But if it was!

Grade 5 Photographic Exhibition

Grade 5 has an annual Exhibition, and for the past 2 years, I have created a separate photography Unit and show for the students to present their skills and learning. We make it like a mini- gallery, with panels as walls to display their work. We look at the work of various photographers, depending on the theme of their entire Exhibition, and relate their content to the UOI that they are focusing on. The last one we did was "Who We Are", so we focused on Black and white portraits of local people- homeless, maids, drivers, village folk- whomever they thought had an interesting face or story to tell. They were also required to give a short interview, in order to put a story behind the face- kind of like "Humans of ___"-style. In this case, Dhaka, Bangladesh. The results were stunning. Here are some of my favorite images.

P.O.D: Unity, Emphasis, Contrast

Key Concepts: Connection, Responsibility, Perspective

Related Concepts: Experiences, culture, identity, audience, perspective, connection

Possible Central Ideas: "Lives are changed through encounters with people of different beliefs and cultures"; "There is more than one way to tell a story".

Inspiring Big Ideas in Little People

I wanted to start this new blog with the work of my students in a chronological order so I could showcase some of the work of my littlest first, since they tend to have the most creative ideas (in my humble opinion). Here are a few images of the Kindergartner's  amazing work!

Animals in the style of Eric Carle

Finishing Louise Nevelson-inspired sculptures

Paper sculpting

"My home"

"Places I Will Go"