I only see my 4th-6th grade students every other week. Needless to say, we won't have finished artwork to display in the hallway for another 3 weeks! I didn't want to walk through empty hallways until then and we needed an activity for the second half of the first Art class (first half= introductions, seating chart, rules, procedures) so this is what I came up with! I went through all my Art History posters and pulled a whooooole bunch, looking for diversity in time periods, styles, media, cultures, etc. and hung posters in the hall. We discussed how to act in a museum (don't touch, be quiet and respectful, act like ladies and gentlemen) and went on a tour in the hallway. I gave each student a die cut shape, a sharpie, and a piece of masking tape. Their instructions were to look at EVERY poster hanging, then pick a favorite and
"Stop, Look, and Think" about WHY it was their favorite, then write a sentence about it on their piece of paper. After writing, the students stuck their shape on the wall close to the poster.
I gave much clearer instructions after the first class when I got sentences like "It's my favorite because it's awesome" and "I like it because it's pretty." I started reviewing the elements and principles and asking the students to be more descriptive and specific. I also modeled a detailed, specific sentence for an imaginary art work. The writing really improved after that. I guess next year I'll have to add that the sentences should be something positive. I did not read each sentence, I trusted the students enough not to. I did have students point out that somebody "wrote something inappropriate" so when I checked under Grant Wood's "American Gothic", I read "I like it because it looks like he's going to stabe (stab) her with the pitchfork." I put the original and a blank die cut shape in his teacher's box with a note asking him to write a different sentence. I was back at that school yesterday and students had found another, almost identical sentence written by someone else. Did the same thing with requesting a re-write. Found yet ANOTHER almost identical sentence, this time with no name. Moving on...
If I were really smart, I would have chosen one color for each grade level. My reason: the shapes created a strong visual that showed what the students are most interested in. It would have been nice to know if there were trends based on age. I think it will give me some guidance when I plan for later lessons. The two most popular posters were an Op Art painting and a FSA Landscape painting.
Scroll down to see some more pictures of our hallway "museum"!
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| Written about a Jackson Pollock painting |
Our StuCo picked "Nobody rides this ship. We all row. We're all in." for a theme for the year so I drew the biggest “mural” out ahead of time based on that saying and had it stretched across 3 tables in the art room. Each class painted and we finished it before the end of the day. The students planned the colors and added more details as they worked. When it became clear that it would be finished before my last class came in, I grabbed some more butcher paper and sketched out another table sized mural. We ended up making a couple more that the students designed and I sketched out under their direction to make it quicker. Next year I may have the students work in groups to completely design and create murals I just did not expect them to finish so quickly this year so I adapted!
