This week my 2nd graders (well one class at least...the other had a field trip during art) finished their first Chihuly project. We did the coffee filter project. Before we went into the hallway, i had students get into a large circle in the room and place their pieces one at a time on the floor. We talked about composition and placement. At first, as expected, they just put them on the floor randomly. After I rearranged them to try and make a more interesting shape, they started to catch on. We did it one more time in the room and they decided they wanted to make an "A" for art out on the wall. I wasn't so into the idea, wanting them to create something more organic, but when we got out into the hallway and they were giving each other directions on where to place the coffee filters, they came up with this diamond shape. Still not quite what I had in mind, but much better than a Chihuly "A"! We shall see how the 2nd class does later this week!
For the final project in the Chihuly unit, they will be creating their own Chihuly sculptures using shrinky dink plastic. More on that to come as I will be making and trying out my own example to figure out the best process for melting them in class! I bought a heat gun to use but I am going to have to figure out if it will be better to go to the old home ec. room where there are two ovens to bake the pieces during class. It will be A LOT for me to take home and do if I end up bringing everything home! Plus, it will be harder to keep track of the pieces once they are curled.
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My kindergarteners have finished their primary lines paintings and we are now onto secondary shapes. Here are some of their finished products! A couple of the "good cutters" really got into making some creative lines out of the silver paper!
More posts to come this weekend! I have a few other finished projects / projects in progress that I want to share!
I love how the 2nd graders worked together to create their composition! We always have OUR vision in our mind how we think something should be completed. Over the years I have resolved and come to understand that the minds of young children envision things in a completely different way than us( as they should )and they will always see things in a different way. Its good! They enlighten me more times than I can say! Their vision of things help me to have my own "AH HAH!" moments! :)
ReplyDeleteI know! I'm trying really hard to do projects with my kids this year that let them have more artistic freedom rather than just "copying" my example. Sooo now I have to concentrate more on teaching them what good art looks like rather than focusing on the art techniques, which I've realized is how I was teaching the past two years.
DeleteThe silver foil vertical lines really add to the line paintings :)
ReplyDeleteI usually start an activity with at least 2 examples (each completely different) to show possible directions they might take with a particular technique - this way they have an idea of where they might be going, but don't feel locked in to my example. With lots of brainstorming 'What else could you do?' I get all sorts of variations on the theme and they take pride in coming up with their own ideas.
I like that idea of showing two different examples...I've been finding that I haven't really been having time to create my own examples before I begin the projects this year (thank you APPR!) but now that the kids are understanding and following rules pretty well, I can sit down with them and actually do the projects with them (I like to spend 2-3 minutes at each table working on my own project with the kids to sit and talk with them if I can)...since I have two classes at each level, this might be the perfect way to make my examples for when I do the projects again at a later date and time! Thanks!
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