I believe this is my new favorite blog. I love seeing the results of Nan's choice based art room. I would like to gradually work choice based into my art program. However, it requires becoming quite creative with space.
With some 8th grade help, we just began a group weaving center. It has just begun, but I will update the progress.
This was our first day of school project. Each student, grades 1 through 8, "doodled" their way across their own puzzle piece.
Our emphasis was on using doodling as a form of visual brainstorming. The only rule: Black marker outside the bold lines, colored marker inside the bold lines.
I wanted the statement to set the tone for the school year, approaching art as self-exploration. The exercise also serves as a good initial assessment of students abilities and comfort with creativity. It's also fun to see the developmental progression from 1st grade to 8th, left to right.
6th graders are creating symbolic self-portraits. Students are using animals to symbolize their personality traits. Their sculptures are a combination of those animals' traits.
Armatures are constructed from newspaper, masking tape, paper mache, clay, and wire. They sculpted the basic form from newspaper and tape. The wire provides the support. Clay allows for fine detail. Students realized that they need to distribute the weight so that the creature can stand. Some hid beans and rocks within the newspaper and tape to balance the weight.
After the "skeletons" are built, students will create the "skin" with paper mache. Finally, they will be painted.
Here's a teaser. There will be more images of all the sculptures as they develop.
Olivia's sculpture is a combination of a Llama, gazelle, and bird.
This turtle was carved into Balsa Foam and painted in acrylic paint by an 8th grade student who happens to be color blind. Concerned about his ability to mix color, he asked his friend to describe what colors should go into mixing the colors for his turtle.
Beginning with the dark green on the right side of the turtle, his friend gave very precise instructions on how much green, orange, red goes into each stage of the gradation. He coached him through painting the entire turtle.
In some ways his description gave better color mixing results than the color mixing on his own project. Perhaps the act of having to describe the contents of the color caused him to look "deeper" into the color.
