For starters, I began and nearly completed long-term projects with both the 1st and 2nd graders as well as the 6th grade.
The 1st and 2nd grade projects were born from a conversation with Ms. Kitty about how she wanted the students to have some practice creating sculptures and ensuring permanent attachments. Up until now, the students have mostly been working in the two-dimensional studios such as drawing, collage, painting and fashion. We decided the 2nd graders would learn about building armatures out of paper and tape, and creating permanent attachments using paper mache'. The 2nd grade was a great group for me to do an extended investigation with, because they get to come to art class twice a week!
We also decided the 1st graders would work in clay as their sculptural material, learning to make coils and slabs and learning to slip and score for permanent attachments.
It is the hope of myself and Ms. Kitty, that the students will continue to use these skills, materials and techniques independently, in the studios, even after these "must-do" projects are complete.
I also wanted this project to be about the Studio Habit of Envisioning. I wanted the students to feel the magic and learn about the process of having something two dimensional, like a drawing, become a three-dimensional object. I decided to go with an animal theme and have each student create a combination animal because young children generally like animals and mythological creatures.
In order to find a personal connection to the students' identities, I decided to have both the 1st and 2nd grade students choose animals that they have had personal experiences with, either through memories, dreams or perceived similarities.
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| Students use this "thinking sheet" to draw animals they have personal connections with as a way to begin the project. |
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| 1st and 2nd grade students brainstorm which animals they are similar to and why. |
As it turns out, I wish I hadn't spent so much time (two days of work time) having students work on two different thinking sheets where they drew their animals. Next time I would have the students go straight to the collaging phase, perhaps still choosing animals in the collage that they have had encounters with or memories of.
Next, students moved into creating a collage. We looked at the book The Crazy Chameleon by Eric Carle, in order to discover the meaning of collage. Both 1st and 2nd grade students then collected the animals on their thinking sheets, navigating around the room to a "water animal", "land animal" and "air animal" table in order to collect their creatures. They then learned how to contour cut-out the parts they needed, and they created a brand-new never seen before combination creature. They gave it a name and silliness ensued! The creatures the students made through collage are awesome. I think this process is great for such young kids, because they get to make something that is complex and beyond their current drawing ability by using found images.
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| We organized the animals to collage by their habitats. |
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| Pretty cool shark-dog! |
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| Students who needed an extra day stored their animals in envelopes. |
The next class, I talked to the students about how when you make a sculpture it is important to simplify the shapes, and create a plan for the sculpture. I demonstrated finding basic shapes like circles and triangles in my creature collage. We then had the students place their collages into a plastic sleeve and use dry erase markers to outline all the shapes they found in their sculptures. They then took their collage out of the sleeve and saw the shapes for what they were without the business of the collage.
As a last step for the day, the students had to re-draw the shapes they found in their collage on a separate sheet of paper so that we can reuse the plastic sleeves with another class. This shape drawing will be the guide for their armature. If they had time, students were encourages to make their shape drawing into a schematic drawing, labeling the different body parts of their creature for the sake of clarity.
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| Asher's process for planning his sculpture. |
Next 2nd grade students learned about the word armature. We likened the armature of a sculpture to a human skeleton, which supports our muscles and skin and holds us upright. We looked at Mr. Bones, the resident human skeleton in the classroom, in order to make this connection.
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| Mr. Bones |
Next the 2nd graders learned how to make a paper armature using one of three methods: crumpling, twisting, or adding to found form. I demonstrated all three of these techniques, showing the students that paper can be manipulated and molded similarly to clay. I showed the students how to use the edge of the table to help them keep track of the end of the masking tape, and how to get multiple pieces ready ahead of time so they had them when they needed them most. We also encouraged the students to pair up and help each other tape. One student scrunched or twisted and held their form still, and the other student helped them tape that shape firmly. It worked out pretty well, with most of the students being patient and helping each other get the job done.
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| This student twists paper to make a coil for a body part. |
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| As students began working on their armatures, some students were still finishing up their shape drawings and collages. |
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| Individual paper forms come together to form a whole armature. |
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| Students use the table to keep track of their tape and retrieve it when needed. |
Students created their armatures according to their shape drawing. They created the shapes separately at first, and then joined them together with more tape. Students were given a size limit to aim for, but many of the sculptures grew as the students added more and more body parts.
Regardless of being too big for an ideal world, it was very exciting to see the creatures begin to come to life using only paper and tape. Students were encouraged to keep their shape drawings next to them while they worked on their armatures, in order to stick with their planned and envisioned creature.
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| Students compare their armatures to their shape drawings. |
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| This armature is ready for the next step! |
Following the completion of their paper armature, which took at least three class periods, students moved on to paper mache'. I discussed with the students how paper mache' is a great way to permanently attach two porous materials together. We also talked about how paper mache is like the skin on top of the armature, and once we covered our armatures with the skin of brown paper and glue, no one would be able to tell exactly what was underneath. I demonstrated how to properly apply the glue to the torn paper, never dunking the paper into the glue but rather using two fingers to apply a conservative amount of glue to each side of the paper, and encouraging the students to apply one layer of mache over one body part at a time.
Students worked on their mache, and most were quite persistent in getting it done. Some students took three 45 minute class periods to paper mache their sculpture and others needed another class to get it done. Once some students finished applying "skin" to their own sculpture, I asked them to help other students finish their paper mache.
Figuring out systems for making sure all the paper mache sculptures would dry, and even figuring out where to keep all 50 2nd grade sculptures was pretty tricky. Ms. Kitty and I ended up coming up with a system where the kids would place their sculptures in long gray bins at the end of class, and then after school I would hang them up to dry on a pole using a rubber band around the sculpture and a paper clip as a hook. As it turns out they dried just as well within the bin, in the warm hallway, so I didn't need to hang them up each time after all. We also made name tags for each student that included their class number, which we "laminated" with tape. The students placed the tags around the neck of their sculpture at the end of each day. These name tags will come in handy for future classes and projects, so we actually made them for the 1st grade and kindergarten classes as well.
Currently the students are working on painting their combination creature sculptures. I taught the students about applying a base coat of acrylic paint as a background layer, demonstrating how it is more difficult to paint around details, rather than adding them on top of a solid background.
Because this project involves so many steps and the students don't take their art home until the end, I felt we needed a way to let the parents in on what we were doing in the art room. I created a second grade newsletter for both 2nd grade classes, using the students own words that they had written on sentence strips... Photocopiers are the absolute best!
I had to leave student teaching after a short seven weeks in order to move on to student teaching at the high school level. Ms. Kitty is going to continue this project to completion, and teach the students the final step which is about how to paint textures and details such as fur and feathers on their creatures. I will post some of the completed sculptures when she sends me the pics. I can't wait to see them displayed around the school for report card pick-up!
