Art and the Olympics!

This year I wanted a theme for elementary art. In Canada (and in my family) we get really excited about the Olympics, particularly in the winter. Living in a country that is cold and snowy for the majority of the year… it is a necessity to take part in winter pastimes! This year’s Olympic Games also were exciting to talk about since they took place in Korea! The majority of my students are of Korean descent, though many have grown up here in Turkey.

We started with talking about what the games are- when they take place, how often, the teams from each country, different events for summer versus winter, the medals…

We looked at the visual symbols for the Olympics- the rings in conjunction with the logo designs for some of the past Games. I had both my high school classes and elementary classes make new logos.

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Next we worked on a sculpture. First grade designed medals, second and third grade worked on trophies depicting athlete action poses, and fourth and fifth grade designed and sewed mascot plushies!

Then the Art Olympic events! I used these events as opportunities to assess/review what the kids knew about the Elements of Art. We spent more time in first and second grade with the various activities, but all students across the grade levels were part of a team and could earn points.

Texture Hunt/Colour Pull Activity

Textile Patterns from Ghana

After our unit in the caves, we flew off to a new country in West Africa; Ghana.

In first and second grade we looked at Kente cloth patterns

We started with making two patterned papers.

1. Printed gold patterns on black paper- we made printing blocks by wrapping twine around sponges

2. Painted geometric patterns using colour, line and shape

 

 

Once these papers were finished, we wove the two patterns together to create a new and intricate pattern. The black paper became our warp and the coloured was the weft strips. Weaving always goes over great- I did it with both groups last year, so this was review for most. We talked about how Kente cloth is used to make new clothes for special occasions and thought about what occasion we would make our designs for; a few students wrote artist statements about the meaning behind their finished pieces.

Third through fifth grade focused on the Adinkra symbols found on Kente cloth

We looked at examples of symbols and their meanings; and watched an artist through the process of stamping a design on cloth.

I gave the students sheets of ideas of existing symbols and encouraged to make a design of their own. They glued foam shapes onto a cardboard base.

The printing of these designs was exciting! Even after printmaking with classes this long, I still strive to make the process run more smoothly. I set up a long table in the middle of the room for inking, and each student at the remaining four tables had a number. When it was their turn, students inked their stamps in the middle and then returned to their tables to print. I encouraged them to rotate the stamps to create variation in their design and also incorporate a second symbol.

 

 

Patterns Continued

This month I taught my usual paper weaving project in kindergarten and first grade. There were many “I love art” exclamations throughout the learning process, which made these final weeks more enjoyable. Perhaps this comes from the tactile ‘over, under’ weaving rhythm… and the novelty of being able to do art on the carpet? We made painted paper first, and used a portion of this for our warp and weft patterns.

The finished woven pieces became placemats for a picnic meal collage. First graders continued with pattern and created a printed design around the edge their plates. We talked about cutting big, paper shapes to fill the space on the plates and adding smaller details afterwards. Some students had time to create utensils also.

Weaving Wonders

In elementary art, we are finishing off the year with weaving. Thinking back to my last experience of teaching weaving, this may have not been a good idea. However, fortunately for me, this second time around went a lot more smoothly! The kindergarteners especially impressed me with getting the hang of it so quickly. As this type of activity is more tactile and hands-on,  I see students who are more prone to struggle in art class excel with this type of activity. They seem to get the concept better than their more artistically inclined peers. It is fun for me to watch them at work, I even had comments of “this is FUN!” over the week, which is so great. I did try to make it fun, having them work on the floor and giving them the chance to be up and active as I introduced the activity. We mimicked the action of ‘weaving’ with our bodies- it looked like a giant game of limbo. I got some great tips from other art teacher blogs out there- Cassie Stephens and Mini Matisse– thanks!

The early finishers added a plate of their favourite foods to top their mat- don’t they look great?