CHW India: Mehndi

India was our focus for Cultural Heritage Week this year. My 4th-6th grade students chose a starting point from the "Art is Culture" bulletin board and were free to branch out from there with their own ideas. One of the most popular starting points was mehndi. Mehndi (henna) is applied on the hands and feet of Indian brides and can also be used for other special occasions. There's a nice article about Mehndi in Indian Marriages here. 

We talked about how the ink is made from leaves, how the designs are applied, that the designs are temporary so not really "tattoos", and what elements are used to create the designs (lots of lines, organic shapes and images, repetition, etc.) I created a "cheat sheet" with different kinds of shapes and lines I've observed in looking at many, many, images of mehndi and some tips for getting started. The cheat sheets were really helpful for the students. I will try to scan the cheat sheet and share it later.

Most students interested in mehndi chose to start by tracing their hand and wrist, then planning out their designs with pencil. When I watched the application of mehndi, there was obviously no erasing. The students were more comfortable with the safety net of a pencil. After the designs were planned, most traced with sharpie. Many students used construction paper from the Pacon Multicultural Construction Paper pack. It was nice to have 10 different skin tones so students could choose one that matched their own if they wanted. Some students used white paper instead with the intention of adding color.

Some designs were left clean and simple, either with a blank background or cutting out the arm and gluing to a new piece of construction paper.

Some students combined the idea of mehndi with what they learned about block printing in India. Craft foam and cardboard were used to create stamps. Metallic gold paint was the most popular choice for stamping.

Metallic anything is usually popular at my schools. The student below used metallic colored pencils to create a border of different patterns. 

Many students also used bleeding art tissue on top of their mehndi designs. You can see more tissue examples here!

Kindergarten Initial Dots

This year I decided to do some more structured lessons to start off the year with Kindergarten. I was trying to cover lots of basic skills and now we've started getting into more choice. For Kindergarten's first project, they traced a circle (a dot for International Dot Day), drew their first initial, traced with markers, learned about and created lines and patterns, practiced scissor skills, and practiced using a glue stick. This project gave me a lot of information about my students' beginning of the year abilities so I can tailor instruction and see what we need to work on the most.

 Day 1- Name on papers, trace circles, write first initial, trace initial, start talking about lines

Day 2- Review and practice different kind of lines, draw lines around initial with crayon, cut out circle, glue to square of construction paper, add designs to construction paper if time allows and student chooses.

 

1st Grade Lines and Shapes

If you've been around here very much, you know that this year I switched to TAB (Teaching for Artistic Behavior) which is choice-based art education. There came a time, however, that I felt some of my students needed more explicit instruction and practice on some of the elements of art, mainly lines and shapes, to meet our visual arts standards. I decided to try explicit instruction on lines and shapes, and then let students have studio choices as long as they could show me in the end how they used different kinds of lines and shapes. You can see my full lesson plan on The smARTteacher.

I have mixed feelings about this process, choice within a formal theme, and feel it requires some more experimentation and some good old fashioned action research. I need to make some choices this summer about how I want to complete this research. I'm not at that stage in my graduate courses yet, but it might be something to consider when I do my final research paper.

To prepare for this project, we spent some time exploring a selection of artwork with lines and shapes, both organic and geometric. Identifying and describing the lines and shapes in the artwork helped students see some possibilities. I created Pinterest boards to organize my examples.

http://www.pinterest.com/katiemorris/shape-gallery/ 

http://www.pinterest.com/katiemorris/lines/ 

http://www.pinterest.com/katiemorris/organic-in-art/ - 

I think at this age, a lot of students couldn't see past using lines and shapes in a nonobjective way. Once I told them it was a requirement, lots made ONLY lines and shapes. It kind of reminds me of an article I read the other day on the Art of Education where Ian Sands talks about not grading art anymore. Great article, check it out!

While I feel that this assignment limited the thinking of some of my students, I guess this was a loosey goosey way of standardizing things. I think that will have to happen more and more as we will need to start developing and using common assessments in my district next year. I'm just trying to be positive about it and find a way to still allow choice and jump through the necessary hoops.

Check out some of the other student work. I think the majority did a really good job of showing the use of lines and shapes while still communicating THEIR idea.

1st Grade Paper Koinobori

My 1st grade East Asian lesson for Cultural Heritage Week was based on Japanese Koinobori. Koinobori are Carp Windsocks flown in celebration of Children's Day (May 5). Why carp? While in the US carp are an invasive species and undesirable, in Japan, they are respected. Carp are thought to have qualities that Japanese families hope their children will possess- they are spirited, energetic, strong, and determined. Apparently Children's Day used to be known as "Boy's Day" but I read somewhere that it is now used to celebrate the health of ALL children. 

Our Koinobori are not authentic (obviously), more inspired by Koinobori. There are traditions of certain colors of Koinobori being flown to represent different family members, and most do not have streamers for tails. Since we don't have wind inside and I wanted the students to understand they are windsocks, I decided to go ahead and use crepe paper streamers for movement.

Some of the Art teachers in my district ordered Koinobori kits that had the paper shaped like a carp so the students could just add their designs. Since my schedule means I have to make my budget stretch twice as far, we used construction paper, tempera paint, glue sticks, and crepe paper streamers. I picked up 6 or 7 big rolls of streamers at Hobby Lobby in different colors and have enough left to be a good start if we do this lesson again next year. The pattern we used is to the left. I just experimented a bit until I found a method that worked well. The template I came up with is on the left.

On the first day, we got started by looking at some pictures of Koinobori, finding Japan on a map, talking about the symbolism, and then talking about the design elements. After the introduction, the students painted the eyes and patterns to represent scales, using whatever colors of paper and tempera paint they wanted. Well, almost any color they wanted. I let students chose any color of construction from a variety pack except black or brown and set out paint in each primary and secondary color. I gave a quick demo so I could demonstrate paintbrush care and control. We did not draw the designs in pencil first, just jumped right in with paint. I did draw the pattern really big on the board to remind the students about the eye placement. The eyes should be centered close to the top, about 1/3 in from each side. I demonstrated sort of a wavy line but the students could use any kind of line. Some really got into making patterns and using as many different kinds of lines as they could think of. Most students didn't have any trouble getting all the painting done in one class period and I was really impressed with their care in using good craftsmanship! If I noticed a student was painting a little slowly, I suggested that they use one color for all the lines and more colors for the extra designs. I also made sure to remind the students not to give their fish a mouth- in the second class period the paper is formed and the hole becomes the mouth!

In the second class period, the students glued crepe paper streamers in place. You need two short streamers for the fins, a medium streamer for the dorsal fin, and 4-5 longer streamers for the tail. We folded the fin streamers in half and used a glue stick to glue in place (look at the pattern above for placement) and glued the longer tail streamers from the back. I am so glad that one of the Paraeducators saw me measuring and cutting the streamers, though I wish she would have seen me sooner because she gave me a tip that saved a TON of time! She suggest that I tape an end and wrap the streamers around a chair back a bunch of times, then cut. This allowed me to quickly cut a bunch to the same length! I ended up using 1/2 of the loop for long streamers* and cutting the other halves in half again for the shorter streamers. Just try the chair thing and experiment until you find the right length. *Because I ended up hanging these on the top strip in the hallway, I did have to trim the tail streamers to prevent them from covering other artwork.

If a student missed the first class period, they used crayons or markers to make their design on construction paper before gluing the streamers. I asked the students to neatly write their names on the front now that the paint was dry so I wouldn't have to try to look down the center to find the names later. The next part is where an extra helper or volunteer would come in really handy. As the students finished gluing their streamers, they got in line so I could staple their fish for them. Older students would probably be able to staple their own. I experimented with changing the placement of the staples to give the koinobori a little shape. I basically just wrapped the tail end a tiny bit tighter. After I stapled, the students were given a long piece of yarn to thread through the center of their cylinders and tie in a knot. I showed how to tie the not and if a student was struggling, they got help from another student who was a masterful knotter. 

Potential "management issues" with this project

• Where to store the koinobori? I have a giant box turned "picture frame" in my room that we used as a fish tank until I found time to photograph the projects and hang them in the hallway. 
• Photographing the projects- if you use Artsonia, you'll definitely want to photograph these but it can be a bit tricky. When I photograph 2D artwork for Artsonia, I have a list of my roster and after checking the students' name on the back, I flip it over and photograph with the name on the roster just above the list so that it can be cropped later. With regular 3D work like clay pieces, I write names on strips of paper and set the names within the frame of my camera. For work that has to hang, my best solution was to hang it on a magnetic hook on my chalkboard and erase names when I was done with each.
• Hanging the work- These would look awesome hanging from the ceiling... but there were potential problems with fire codes and motion detectors. Plus, moving a tall ladder to hang approximately 120 koinobori in the hallway did not seem feasible. I just ended up hanging the projects by stapling the yarn  to my bulletin board strips.

Try this lesson! The students loved making the projects and learning a little about Children's Day in Japan. Plus, if your curriculum focuses on the elements of Art, this is a fun way to cover "Line".

Messy Mondrians

Kindergarten at my school, as I'm sure they do in many schools, studies a letter a week. A couple months ago for "M" week, I wanted to do an Art lesson that incorporated the letter. At first I had "magenta monkeys" in my head but I never came up with a lesson I was excited about. Then one day I had some extra liquid paint from a lesson with paint droppers and not wanting to waste the paint, I decided to play! I came up with an idea that I really like: Messy Mondrians.

Most classes used paint droppers* to drip horizontal and vertical lines of black paint across their papers in the first class, after the Mondrian introduction and discussion, of course. In the second class, they were given only the primary colored tempera cakes to paint in their shapes.  A few classes used cardboard to stamp horizontal or vertical lines and colored with primary colored crayons. I prefer the dripped artwork over the stamped but uneven scheduling with two classes, and students who were too chatty in another, meant changes were necessary. I wish I would have checked the diluted paint for the droppers more carefully because I added a little too much water and it ended up gray instead of a rich black..

*Some people might think I'm a little crazy for giving Kinders paint droppers. For the most part it was fine. I did have one little mishap. As I was describing how you only need to squeeze a little bit of paint at a time on the edge of your paper and let it drip to the other side, I was holding a dropper full of paint in the air in front of me, and a little boy who can't always control his impulses shot his hand out and squeezed the dropper, splattering black paint all over the table and one little girl's paper. He immediately said "Sorry!" but I was stubborn and didn't let him use his dropper independently since he had shown poor judgment. At first he was upset but I went on helping other students and told him when he was calmed down, I would help him. He came to get me a few minutes later and I had him direct me as I dripped paint exactly where he pointed for one side of the paper, then I held the dropper with him and let him squeeze the paint on the other.

The last 2 years I've done a collage Mondrian lesson with Kindergarten. The students took some of the elements of Mondrian's artwork (primary colored squares and rectangles and black "lines") and arranged them in their own composition. I think I was getting a little bored with it and wanted to try something different. (I just saw a mixed media Mondrian lesson on Artopotamus that was pretty cool!)