Paper Animal Sculptures

As a one-day challenge, students in grades 2 and 3 created animals or creatures out of only magazine pages and tape.   We cared not what was written on the page, but instead ripped pages out of Better Homes and Gardens with reckless abandon. 

 Students practiced crumpling paper to make ovals and spheres, and coiling paper to make things like legs and necks.  

Some of the results were pretty great, and students got some exploratory practice in before an upcoming project.

Post-It to the Puppets

Students in grades 3 and 4 displayed their finished puppets on the art tables, and walked around the room to look at each others work.  Next,we talked about complements, and how artists deserve specific complements that let them know what they did well and could repeat again on another piece.  

Some things the students brainstormed they could write about were: the way the puppet was put together or the way it moves (engineering), the details of the puppet in color and texture, the creativity in character design, and the neatness (craftsmanship). 

Students then walked around the room and left specific complements on post-its for their peers, next to a particular puppet.  The students loved doing this and many of them asked for more and more post-its to write on.  One class did not stop for the entire class period, and spent 30 minutes giving complements.  At the end of class, students headed back to their seat and read the complements that were left for them.  We made sure as a group that every puppet got some feedback.

Here are some more pics of the finished puppets.  
I will post a link to the youtube shadow shows once they are all filmed. 

Finished Puppet Complements

Students in grades 3 and 4 displayed their finished puppets on the art tables, and walked around the room to look at each others work.  Next,

Finishing Our Shadow Puppets

Students in the 3rd and 4th grades have now added color and details to their shadow puppets, making them enticing art objects as well as fabulous shadow play.  They chose either colored pencils, markers or both to bring their characters to life.  

A completed donkey puppet created by Alexander in 4th grade,  next to his original drawing and design.

Next, they joined each of their separately drawn and cut pieces together, using paper fasteners.  Next week, students will add the dowel rods to their puppets and begin rehearsing movements that tell the story of their folktale. 

A completed bird puppet by Alicia in 4th grade. 

Many of the puppets came out absolutely superb from the standpoint of successful engineering and design, as well as beauty and characterization. 
I will be posting more pictures of both the puppets and performances soon.

Here are links to some of the performances:  More to come!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jx7NAOYcwk&feature=youtu.be 

http://youtu.be/6Nm5qkKbqMQ

Designing Puppets Based on Folktales

After creating practice puppets to understand how shadow puppets are put together, students in the 3rd and 4th grade are now creating shadow puppets of their own design based on folktales and fables.  We are using Rudyard Kipling and Aesop's fables as our main source of story.  

Traditional Indonesian shadow puppet

Students from each class are working in groups. Each group has its own story and each student is creating a character within that story. 

The first step was for students to read the stories aloud and identify who the characters are and who would create each character. They also summarized the story.  Next, students learned about the words characteristic and trait, and they brainstormed four characteristics their puppet would have. 

Next, the students created a sketch for what they thought their puppet could look like.  Some students used pictures of animals as a reference.   I also talked to students about how they should plan ahead of time, and be thinking about which part of the puppet would move. 

Students showed their thinking and plan for how their puppet will move by drawing circles to indicate where they will use paper fasteners to create a movable joint.  

Currently, the students are drawing their design on thicker card stock, being sure to draw their moving parts separately.  The students are doing a lot of problem solving to create successful puppets.

Creating Practice Shadow Puppets

Students in grades 3 and 4 learned about the mechanics of shadow puppets by creating a practice puppet using a template. 

They chose between a bird and a snake, and learned through the process that they needed to draw all the moving parts separately, and then fasten them together.  It took us two 40 minute periods to make these in class. We had just a few minutes to practice with them in front of a shadow screen made out of a bed sheet. Those last few minutes of practice time were very fulfilling.

We made the puppets out of cereal boxes to save on resources and so that students would understand that they can make  puppet at home.

Organic Shapes Remind Us of Things

Over the last two weeks, the second and third graders and I 
have been comparing and contrasting organic and geometric shapes.  

 To begin, we talked about how shapes are made using lines. We talked about how geometric shapes are symmetrical and usually made with straight lines, and we compared geometric shapes to organic, which are not symmetrical, and are generally made with crazy, lumpy, curvy, and zig-zag lines that when combined together, 
remind of things in nature. 

In order to make our own organic shapes that are "shapes that don't have names", we played a game using different types of lines.  Each shape was made spontaneously, by students using a certain number of a specific type of line, combined with specific amounts other types of lines. 

The results were certifiably organic. 

Right before we began examining the shapes we made, we looked at this book by Lisa Campbell Ersnt.  In her book, she begins with the alphabet and examines each letter shape in different directions.  Each way you turn a letter, you see something different.  The students were really excited by her revelations, and were able to see what she saw in each letter.  Some of the students immediately began looking at their own organic shapes from every direction, such as the student above. 

Next, I had all the students cut out the organic shapes they had made, and look at them from different directions to decide what they could become.  Students then glued down their shapes onto paper, basing their placement upon what the shapes would become.  

 I then asked the students to add to their shapes suing drawing materials, as well as the background behind them, in order visually show others what they saw in each shape.  

I love this person, whose skirt and hat are made from organic shapes!

One shape has become a dog, and the other a flag.

One thing I like about this project, is that I believe it helps students think about drawing objects in different ways, other than their already traditional ways of representing objects.  I want students to realize that there are other ways they can describe something like a flag or a car beyond what they automatically draw.  K-4 students (and adults too) generally use something called a schema when they draw. A schema is a system or catalog of representation that students use to communicate and fall back on.  The catalogs evolve as students get older, but they generally draw things in the same way all the time.  I think schemas are important, but believe students should also be pushed to draw in new and different ways, both realistically, symbolically and figuratively. 

"I see a bird and this is a milkshake".

A mushroom garden and a clever bat appear in this drawing.

The Silhouetted Objects Challenge

In preparation for making shadow puppets, which rely heavily on shape to communicate story and a sense of character, I had students in the 3rd and 4th grade think more about shape.  As a one-day challenge, I showed them a projected silhouette of a stapler and a scissor, which they were immediately able to identify "because of their shape" and because they are familiar with these objects.
We talked briefly about the word silhouette.  I really like silhouettes because, as stated by the artist Beatrice Coron, the language of silhouettes is efficient and gets down to the essential (qualities of something).

Art by Beatrice Coron who works in cut paper!

I then demonstrated the challenge I wanted the students to take on during class time.  
Each table group was given a baggie of words naming different objects such as bird, lamps, swing, etc.  
The challenge was for students to be able to cut out a shape or multiple shapes that communicated their chosen word so that it could be recognized without using any lines whatsoever. 

This is a horse and a suitcase by third graders in 207.

Once they found a shape(s) that communicated their word, they cut it out and glued it onto a cardboard "flash card". 
Each class now has a set of flash cards which we will discuss and play with during the next class. 

Fork and Lamp

Television, Shirt and Cherry

During this "challenge", students had to visualize the objects in their mind, as well as to think symbolically and consider what is essential to recognizing a particular object as a shape in order to successfully communicate their word.  

"Donut", "Butterfly" and "Swing"

Some words were challenging even for adults, and students struggled to figure out just how to do it without using any describing lines. 


For instance, your really do need a cut hole to communicate a donut!

 

Many of the students were extremely successful at communicating their word in silhouette.  I often got chills when I looked at their flash cards, thinking, wow they really got it! 

"Basketball" and "Lamp"

"Helicopter" and "Socks"