Mud Ponies

Last school year we spent some time learning about Native American cultures for our district's Cultural Heritage studies. I came across the book "The Mud Pony" by Caron Lee Cohen and thought it would be a great starting point for a clay project. I didn't have my clay order in yet so I filed the idea away until spring. 

Here's a description of the story from Publishers Weekly:

"From the Skidi branch of the Pawnee Indians of the Plains comes this tale of a boy who achieves greatness in his tribe with the guidance of a pony he made out of mud. Too poor to own a pony like the other boys, he fashions a small mud pony and goes to see it every day. It is during one of these visits that the rest of the tribe moves west in search of buffalo, and the boy is left behind. Not only does the mud pony become a living, breathing horse, but she takes him to his tribe; later, she helps him become the chief of his tribe by giving him great power in battles. "I am here, your Mother Earth. You are not alone!" are the words he hears when the mud pony has once again gone back to the earth. Cohen retells this story with grace; Begay, a Native American artist, provides evocative paintings that derive strength and impact from the suggestion of action rather than fully detailed scenes. Ages 5-8."

I made a really awesome illustration (haha) to show the steps I demonstrated for sculpting a clay horse. I hope that it makes sense!

 This was a little tricky for a lot of the 2nd graders, who tend to either pinch too much and make legs too skinny to support the weight of the rest of the animal, or legs that are too short making the animal hard to identify. I think it would be easier for older students.

Since we are using choice based art, I didn't require that the students make a horse, just that they sculpt the clay. In my next blog post, I'll share some of the other sculpture projects.

Shields

Shield- A broad piece of armor worn on the arm to protect against weapons.

Though shields are primarily designed for physical protection, many are decorated with emblems or symbols for spiritual protection or to represent one’s self or family.

When the art teachers in my district visited the Nelson-Atkins museum of Art last spring to prepare for our Native American focus during Cultural Heritage Week, the curator of the American Indian gallery stated that he thought THIS shield was his favorite piece in the collection. You can follow the link to see a photo and hear the short description that goes with the piece. I knew that shields would be popular with my 6th grade students, but I didn't want to just imitate the piece. Instead, we talked about ideas of protection, representation, and symbolism. The shield would have offered physical protection to the bearer, but the buffalo was more for spiritual protection.

We talked about the buffalo shield, and also looked at shields from Medieval Europe with family crests and shields from tribes in Africa, like the Maasai. The students started by creating a shield base. I had a student video my demo. Some students chose to try the project on the first day, some never tried it, and some tried it in later class periods. The students who started after the first day were shown the video demo so I didn't have to repeat it 20 times. I tried to post the video to YouTube but kept getting errors from iMovie. Tried to post it here and it just shows stills. I'll try to solve the problem later!

Since the video doesn't work, or if you prefer written directions anyway, here are the steps:

• Bend a wire hanger into a shield shape. I use the "bow and arrow" method to stretch it out.

• Wrap the hanger with a few layers of newspaper.
• Use masking tape to secure the edges of the newspaper on the back side.
• Cover the shield with a layer of Mod Podge, cover Mod Podge with paper towel, add one more layer of Mod Podge.
• Clean up edges by curling paper towels around or tearing off excess.

When the shields were dry in the next class period, the students started to plan their designs. I asked them to create a design with a symbol or emblem to protect or represent. When they were ready to add the design, some students drew and painted directly on the shield while others painted a background color and "mod podged" their design on top.

There were several projects going on in the art room at the same time since we're experimenting with choice-based art. To help keep the various white liquids separate, I used a dry erase marker to label them. It wipes right off when you're finished!

When students were finished painting, they filled out an artist statement form about their project. This is something we're working on- writing complete sentences, thinking about the questions instead of just writing something like "I don't know" or "I just did it", etc. I really like reading what the students write about their work.
It may not seem like there was a lot of thought put in to every shield, but the students obviously picked or created symbols that resonate with them. I think that's pretty important.

Creeper...

the Moon!

There's a thought bubble that says "Stop, Don't bully!"

This student skipped the Mod Podge step and just painted directly on the newspaper wrapped around the hanger. It worked a lot better than I expected it to, probably because he was careful to not use too much water. We put a layer of Mod Podge over the top to seal it and lend some strength.

This project was a big hit. Students from lower grades asked about doing it, but I honestly don't know if they could handle it. A lot of the 6th graders had a hard time shaping the wire hangers. It could be that the hangers were heavy-duty. It could also be that "kids these days" don't have much prehensile strength from everything being digital touch screen, etc. and never developed it. I don't know, but I think more bending/squishing/manipulating things projects are in order to help correct the problem!

Ledger Art

Ledger Art was the topic of study for 2nd grade during our Cultural Heritage Week focus on Native American art last semester. Ledger Art is a unique genre of drawing on paper made by the Plains Indians from around 1860-1900. 

This is the summary I gave the students: When higher quality and more convenient art supplies became available after the Indian Wars (1870s), American Indians on the Great Plains started using them to communicate and make records. Petroglyphs (carved into rocks) and pictographs (paintings and drawings) had previously been used. Ledger books were easier to draw on and convenient to travel with. The drawings had a simple style designed for quick understanding. Instead of drawing what they saw, the artists drew the most important parts of the story.

Warning: Many of the ledger drawings show scenes of battle. Screen them before exploring with your students. I tried to avoid showing drawings with scenes of fighting and guns because the students made a big deal about it, and because I didn't want to perpetuate stereotypes since we only had time for a small piece of the overall picture.

I was planning to just offer notebook paper to the students to draw on, thinking it was the most similar to ledgers, but during my research, I also came across an internationally known Blackfeet painter named Terrance Guardipee and got a new idea. Guardipee has revived the ledger art tradition and put his own spin on it, adding collage elements of historical documents. Inspired by Guardipee, 2nd grade students used different papers (notebook paper, old worksheets, phonebook pages, etc.) to create a collage, which became the background for a drawing of a story or event from their lives.

The students drew in pencil and traced with sharpie to help the picture show up better on top of the layered text. Tempera cakes were mostly used to add color, with some students choosing to add detail with crayons. When students finished, they were given lined paper to write out the story in the picture (2-3 sentences.)

This was a good opportunity to talk about composition. What is the most important part of your story? How can you emphasize that with the composition of your artwork?

Some of my older students also gave it a try...

 

Here are some good resources on Ledger Art

http://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/cool-things-native-american-ledger-art/10220

https://plainsledgerart.org/ 

http://terranceguardipee.com/

1st Grade Counts

For our Cultural Heritage study on Native Americans, 1st graders learned about Winter Counts. Winter Counts are histories or calendars used by the Lakota to record events. The “count keeper” added a new picture for the most memorable event of each year, winter to winter. 

 Check out an AWESOME resource on Winter Counts here!

After learning about Winter Counts, 1^st grade students created drawings of a memorable event for each year of their life. Some came from personal memories and some were added after completing their “homework” of asking family for stories about them during infancy and toddlerhood.

I messed up and should have either used this lesson with an older grade, or simplified it for 1st. A lot of students couldn't remember or didn't know stories of things from when they were little. This might also be an issue with my student population. A lot of my students are in foster care or have had pretty rough lives for as young as they are. I gave them a "planning sheet" on the first day with a slot for each year, trying to help. I always seem to forget that most 1st graders are just learning to write at the beginning of the year! I said that they could sketch a quick picture for each age or write it out. Most of them took that to mean that they had to write a sentence for each year and they go sooo hung up on the writing! I tried to tell them that in art class it's more important just to get the idea down but despite me practically begging, most spent 1-1 1/2 classes just writing! The problem then is most couldn't read or remember what they wrote in the next class. :)

After 4 classes, I said enough's enough, last day! I ended up with probably 2/3 finished. Next year, I RESOLVE to remember that 1st grade at the beginning of the year is a LOT different than 1st grade at the end of the year.

It would have gone much better if I had just asked them to draw a memorable event from their life, instead of one from each year. That, friends, is my suggestion to you, should you do a Winter Count project with younger students.

Most of the Winter Counts I have seen are arranged in a spiral. We used a different arrangement to try to focus on the idea more than an imitation.

Adornment

For our Cultural Heritage study on Native Americans, 3^rd grade students explored the Plains Indians’ idea of adorning special clothing with symbols to honor or represent someone. After learning about symbolism on shirts and dresses, the students designed a shirt or dress to either honor someone special to them or represent the artist.

To begin the studio portion of the lesson, the students chose a specific person and brainstormed possible symbols to represent them. I asked the students to list good qualities of the person on the back of their paper because I wanted them to really work on the symbols, not just drawing things that "look indian".

After developing a list of symbols, the students drew the outline of a shirt or dress on their 11x14 inch paper. We spent some time talking about composition and how on the shirts and dresses we saw, the symbols made a really nice overall design- there was thought behind the placement instead of just floating pictures. The students laid their designs out in pencil, traced with sharpie, and added color with regular and construction paper crayons.

If you click to enlarge the photo, you may be able to read what this student wrote about his mom. :)

When the students finished adding color to their artwork, they cut out the "garment" and wrote a description explaining how the design represents the person they chose to honor.

My Friday classes didn't have as much time as the Monday/Tuesday classes, so to save time, they worked on smaller paper, didn't cut out their garments, and wrote out a symbol "key" on the front instead of attaching a separate piece of paper.

*The initial inspiration for this lesson came from a National Museum of the American Indian resource. It was available on their website (www.NMAI.si.edu) under explore, for educators and students but the link doesn't seem to be working today.

Background 

The Give Away Horses dress was created by beaders in the Growing Thunder family. Each design element is a symbol that helps tell the story of how Joyce’s grandparents would have a ceremony to give away horses in honor of their grandchildren. The women sewed beads on the dress for 16 hours a day to complete the piece for an exhibit at the National Museum of the American Indian.

Traditional dresses worn for special occasions may be decorated with symbols that honor family members and connect the wearer to her family and community.

In addition to the images from NMAI, I found some cool pictures in a FiberArts magazine review.  The article said that some warriors wore shirts that “were decorated with personal images and designs that symbolized the deeds and valor of their wearers". (FiberArts Magazine, Beauty, Honor, and Tradition: The Legacy of Plains Indian Shirts).

Puebloan-Inspired Faux Metal and Stone Inlaid Jewelry

We spent at least the first 9 weeks of school being inspired by Native American artists and art forms for part of our district's Cultural Heritage focus. Jewelry is always a popular option with students, even 6th graders who are sometimes starting to get "too cool for school". I found several examples of really beautiful, colorful jewelry made by Native American artists in the Southwest Pueblos and came up with a project inspired by the stone inlaid jewelry using mostly recycled or very low cost supplies.

Materials

Matboard Scraps (cut into geometric shapes)

Aluminum Foil (cut big enough to leave 1/2 inch border on all sides of matboard)

Masking Tape

Sharpies

Magazines

Mod Podge

Mod Podge brushes

Paper Clips

Glue Gun

Yarn or String for hanging

We looked at lots of pictures of stone inlaid jewelry- there are several examples on my Native American Art Pinterest board- and discussed the shapes, colors, space, and how the real jewelry is made. Next, I gave a demo and the students got started. Most of this project, aside from the drying, can be completed in about 30 minutes. 

Here are the simple steps:

1. Choose a piece of matboard and wrap it tightly with foil, "like a present", shiny side out.
2. Tape edges of foil down on back, write name on masking tape.
3. Scan magazines for "swatches" of interesting color and texture.
4. Cut magazine swatches into shapes and arrange on top of foil-covered matboard. Experiment with how much space to leave between shapes for different looks.
5. When happy with arrangement, use a mod podge sandwich to glue and seal magazine shapes- mod podge, paper, modpodge. Coat entire surface of jewelry with mod podge.
6. When dry, use a glue gun to affix a paper clip hanger to the back. You can break a paper clip in half and get two hangers out of it.
7. Choose a piece of yarn or string long enough to fit over your head once tied, slip it through, tie, and enjoy!

To display: At first I had some time and was feeling fancy so I cut scraps of black matboard into squares, cut two slits distanced across the top, slid the yarn through, and secured the extra yarn on the back. When more were coming in and I couldn't keep up, I stapled the yarn to a piece of black construction paper which still looked nice displayed in the hall.

I wish I would have taken more time photographing- that shiny foil was tricky!

Here are my examples. This was a lot of fun!