Haida Indians Masks

  
5th graders are studying the U.S. and Canada in their Social Studies classes, and they love all things Native American, so for Halloween I had them create masks like the Haida Indians of the Pacific Northwest Coast. They first had to research these masks in the internet and bring in examples. In class we compared them to see the common features. We saw that they all had very bushy eyebrows, the eyes were pinched at the end, like footballs. Also, we saw that the lips were rounded and looked like two hot dogs, and that they covered all the negative space with designs.

The first week we taped cardboard triangles on paper plates to create a nose shape, and covered the entire thing with papier-maché (no need to say how much they loooved doing this).

 

The following week they brought in sketches they had made and painted their masks, just in time for the school´s Halloween fair. I have to admit I´m quite impressed with these, they are so much better than I had anticipated—and, mind you, my expectations for this group are very high ;-)

Optical Art: Lines like Bridget Riley

A unit on Optical Art is always a big hit with 5th graders. I love it because non-representational art is fun to look at not too intimidating to make, so students who are not that skilled at drawing often surprise themselves by creating a wonderful piece. For this project, students studyied the life and work of Bridget Riley. I chose her because:

1) Students are not too familiar with women artists (and they should be!)
2) Her work is mostly composed of abstract line compositions and the elements of art are very easily identifiable
3) She was an art teacher too ;-)

On the first lesson we saw some cool optical illusions and defined the term. The next day we saw Bridget´s work and students were handed black construction paper and colored chalk to create similar composition —basically, parallel curved lines to create the illusion of movement. A very basic assignment with very different results. Here are some of them:

Then we took it a step further by working with shapes and complementary colors to make it pop out more. Like these:

Finally, the best part is when students go outside the box and apply what they learned to create completely original compositions, such as these:

We are currenlty woking on some Victor Vasarely checkerboard radials. Will post as soon as they´re finished, i´m sure they´ll be just as awesome :-)

Keith Haring Dance Party!

5th grade students have the most fun: We had a dance party in class the other day! It was actually a 3 part lesson regarding american artist Keith Haring and the Elements of Art. Here is how it went:

On DAY ONE we saw images of Keith Haring´s work and students identifyied the elements of art (line, shape, form, color, space, value and texture) within them, and they way they work in his compositions. Afterwards, students were handed a page with his biography and in pairs they summarized the main ideas. We later discussed discrimination and why ignorance equals fear.

DAY 2 was the most fun! Half the students get up while the other half remains seated and is handed different colored sheets of construction paper (3 each). 80s music is played while the students standing up dance. Suddenly, the music stops and dancers must freeze in their poses, becoming statues while the other half of the class draws their outline. This is repeated 3 times, one for each different color of construction paper. Next, the drawing students become the dancers and vice versa.

On DAY 3 students cut out their dancing shapes and pasted them onto poster board, trying to use space in an interesting way. Afterwards, they outlined their shapes with black marker and created radiant lines or movement lines (or both) around them. Voilá!



Finally, here is the finished work. Maginificent, isn´t it? :-D

Weaving like the Hopi People

5th grade students were studying Native Americans last semester, so we learned about the Hopi People and the art of basket weaving. Using yarn and recycled plastic cups, they designed and created their own little baskets. Beautiful results, and so much fun :-)

Plastic Cup Fence Flag

Last year for Dominican Independence day (27th of February), 5th grade students created a beautiful flag on the chain link fence using recycled plastic cups. First, they collected all the cups. They later painted them in teams (red, white and blue) and finally set them up on the chain links. Great project, so much fun :-D