Unit 4: Celebrations
Artist: Nick Cave
Finger puppets: modeling compound, fabric, felt, plastic eyes, hot glue
Artist: Norman Rockwell
Celebrating 21st Century America: graphic design
Artist: Mariam Schapiro
Artist's Choice: Dream Quilt- construction paper, Sharpie, watercolor pencils, watercolor paint, string, glue
- I chose to create a miniature version of a class quilt. For my art, literacy, and social studies integrated lesson, I have my students creating their own quilt square that represents an important dream of theirs. They can use whatever art mediums they choose but they must effectively show what their dream is about. My top four dreams (as shown in this example) are to become a teacher, own a nice house, have children of my own, and be able to vacation at least once every year!
Unit 4: Celebrations Reflection
Our last unit for the semester was focused on
celebrations. As the semester was winding down and we were engaging in our last
few studios, I tried to make connections and reflect back on our previous
units. To start off our celebrations unit, we learned some basic art history on
Nick Cave and his famous sound suits. Nick creates sound suits to represent
special celebrations. The studio geared towards Cave’s work was to create a
finger puppet out of modeling clay. We could create any character but we had to
include some sort of clothing or items to could potentially create sound. My
animal was a monkey. It may sound silly, but I relate to monkeys because they
are always on the go and enjoy keeping a positive and productive lifestyle. I
enjoyed this craft because it was bright, fun, creative, and made me in a
happy, playful mood. One of our readings by Pink (2005) says, “There is no
question that a playfully light attitude is characteristic of creative
individuals” (p 198). I would highly consider integrating this into my
classroom with literacy. Students can create characters from a Read Aloud book
that they haven’t ever seen. This would spark creativity and allow students to
see that just because everyone hears the same words from the book, that doesn’t
mean that everyone’s vision for the characters are the same. This could work
for multiple grade levels.
For our second studio, we looked at Norman Rockwell for inspiration on American tradition expressed in artwork. For my piece, I chose to create a magazine cover that expressed a popular American tradition for this time of year: prom. I was lucky enough to attend both junior and senior proms for mine and my boyfriend’s schools. Obviously, prom is a huge celebration and I enjoyed looking back at photos for this particular studio. It definitely related back to the big idea of celebrations. I think this studio would be more difficult for younger grades but fifth graders would probably enjoy doing a magazine cover for different cultures or continents as a form of integration with social studies and geography.
For our last studio of the unit, we were given the opportunity to choose anything we wanted to. I chose to create a miniature version of a class quilt to go along with my lesson plan. I integrated visual art, literacy, and social studios by having the students focus on the big idea of dreams. They would look back and reflect on MLK and come up with their own dream that is important to them. Dreams are very much a part of celebrations because dreams are often ideas and personal thoughts that tie to something important to us. I envisioned students to play and have fun with this lesson because it is all about creativity and individuality. One particular quote about creativity that stuck out to me in Pink (2005) was, “just plain laughter can lead to joyfulness, which in turn can lead to greater creativity, productivity, and collaboration” (p 206). This is very important to me because art integration is all about having fun, making things your own, while still understanding the importance and main idea/focus.
Reference:
Pink, D. H. (2005). A whole new mind: Why right-brainers will rule the future. New York, NY: Riverhead Books.
For our second studio, we looked at Norman Rockwell for inspiration on American tradition expressed in artwork. For my piece, I chose to create a magazine cover that expressed a popular American tradition for this time of year: prom. I was lucky enough to attend both junior and senior proms for mine and my boyfriend’s schools. Obviously, prom is a huge celebration and I enjoyed looking back at photos for this particular studio. It definitely related back to the big idea of celebrations. I think this studio would be more difficult for younger grades but fifth graders would probably enjoy doing a magazine cover for different cultures or continents as a form of integration with social studies and geography.
For our last studio of the unit, we were given the opportunity to choose anything we wanted to. I chose to create a miniature version of a class quilt to go along with my lesson plan. I integrated visual art, literacy, and social studios by having the students focus on the big idea of dreams. They would look back and reflect on MLK and come up with their own dream that is important to them. Dreams are very much a part of celebrations because dreams are often ideas and personal thoughts that tie to something important to us. I envisioned students to play and have fun with this lesson because it is all about creativity and individuality. One particular quote about creativity that stuck out to me in Pink (2005) was, “just plain laughter can lead to joyfulness, which in turn can lead to greater creativity, productivity, and collaboration” (p 206). This is very important to me because art integration is all about having fun, making things your own, while still understanding the importance and main idea/focus.
Reference:
Pink, D. H. (2005). A whole new mind: Why right-brainers will rule the future. New York, NY: Riverhead Books.