Australian Dot Painting: Painting Lesson

 Description: 

For this lesson the teachers incorporated Australian aboriginal art into our painting lesson. First they discussed a little bit about Australia and where it is on the map, and then they discussed artist Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri and his famous art work using dots and animals. Then we got to create our own dot art too. 

This is Clifford’s work called Perentie Dreaming, 2000.

To create our own dot work, we followed the steps bellow after choosing a black, animal stencil to use in our project. 

Step 1: Cut a brown paper bag in half, and then cut off the excess to make it the desired shape and size. Then glue your cut out black animal stencil onto the bag wherever you please.

Step 2: Plan your design on a plain piece of paper while your animal dries. 

Step 3: Including at least 1 warm and cool color, use Q-tips to dot your planned design onto your paper bag. Try to utilize your space and cover the bag completely with dots. 

Extension Activity:

A great extension activity for this project would be to have your students create their project exactly as we did, and then give them a writing prompt to write a story that is being told by their art. For example mine could be that this kangaroo is all alone, trying to raise a Joey, and she is taking in the beauty that is nature by looking at the sunset. You can give your students more direction if there is a specific topic you want them to cover, or give them more requirements if you want them to add more to the story such as creating characters, problem, and a resolution, etc. An example standard could be 3.W3 or 4.W.3.

The Mixed Up Chameleon: Oil Pastel Lesson

 Description: 

For this fun activity, we first learned about artist Sally Maxwell and illustrator/author Eric Carle. We discussed the book The Mixed-Up Chameleon, but unfortunately we didn’t get to read it. We discussed scratch art and then got to create our own scratch-art paper as well as practice on premade scratch art paper. 

Step 1: First we created our own scratch art paper, doing this first allowed for time for to dry while we practiced our drawing. We created our own paper by first coloring all the colors of the rainbow with oil pastels onto a piece of paper. After our paper was completely covered, with no white spots showing, we used black tempera paint that was mixed with dish soap to paint over top of the rainbow until no colors were showing through. 

Step 2: The teachers gave us printed out stencils of a chameleon so that we could trace that chameleon on a piece of paper and practice our design on there. After we practiced our designed chameleon on the plain piece of paper, we placed the design we created on top of the premade scratch art paper, and traced it. This created simple, faint lines to appear on the scratch art paper.

Step 3: Use the outline created to deepen the marks and create your colorful chameleon on the premade scratch art paper. 

Step 4: Once the homemade scratch art paper is finished drying, repeat steps two and three on the homemade scratch art paper as well. This should reveal your colorful, mixed up chameleon! If the paint is not mixed correctly, and too much soap is added to the paint, the paint will chip in large chunks rather than allowing you to scratch specific lines. This is what happened with mine so I only included a picture of my premade paper chameleon.

Extension Activity: 

Well discussing animals in their adaptations in science class, you could re-create this activity when talking about camouflage. Allow the students to create a background of their choice, turn this background into homemade scratch art, and then scratch out a Chamaeleon or whatever animal they’re choosing. Then they can give some hints on a note card as to what the background is that their animals camouflage in, and how their animal can camouflage there. For example, Drawing a savanna and scratching out a lion. Lions can camouflage in tall, dry Savannah grass due to the color of their fur. Aligned with standard 3-LS4-2 or 3.

African Storytelling Masks: 3D Design Lesson

 Description:

For this lesson on traditional African masks, first we were shown a presentation that gave us examples and told us about why African masks were used and how they were used throughout their culture. We then reviewed symmetry, geometrical shapes, and patterns. Then the teachers gave us the requirements of our mask and we created our design first on paper to show our plans. We needed at least 3, three dimensional aspects to our masks. I added three-dimensional hair, nose, and tongue to my animal mask. We each got to create our own unique designs based off of what we heard about traditional African masks. We had to then write two facts about traditional masks, our mask and its name on our note card. I wrote about how African masks that looked like animals were used in storytelling and for asking the gods/spirits for blessings. I named mine Scar like on Lion King.

Extension Activity: 

This lesson could be tied in to a standard that are used on a previous lesson as well, 3.H.2.3. I think this lesson could very easily be integrated into the social studies standard because it talks about different cultures used around the world and different communities. Then you could talk about the traditional African masks and how they were used in their culture. 

You could also extend this further and have your students use these in language arts and have them look up a traditional story that they told in African culture while wearing the masks. Your students could then tell the story while wearing their mask, and give the class an explanation as to what this story meant to the people of Africa. An example standard for this could be 3.SL.6, if you don’t want to require a lot of writing, but more focus on speaking the story itself. 

Basket Weaving: Crafts Lesson

 Description: 

This lesson was performed by my partner Lydia and I. We got the inspiration from the Easter holiday coming up at the time, however we tied in a basket weaving lesson with many basket weaving traditions throughout history. Whether the baskets were for holidays such as Easter, or Mayday or simply for cultural aspects such as Native American basket weaving and African cultures that weave as well. We talked about the uses for a basket weaving and then allowed our students to create their very own basket and decorate it however they pleased. They then had to write a written response to tell us about what they learned and why they decorated their basket the way they did.

Step 1: Using a paper cup, have the students cut an odd number of tabs all the way down to the bottom of their cup. We used 9-11 tabs, but the more tabs, the longer the weaving process will take. Or cut the tabs for them, whichever works better for your class. 

Step 2: Tape the free end of yarn to the bottom of the cut, cup. They can either take a large amount of string, over 4 wingspans, or keep it connected. Then begin weaving in an A,B,A,B (or under, over, under, over) pattern around the cup.

Step 3: Keep the string tight, and pull it down as necessary to ensure no cup is showing. Continue weaving to the desired height and cut off the excess tabs, leaving a little bit so the string doesn’t slip off. 

Step 4: Decorate your basket as desired! I chose a Christian Easter Basket to represent my faith, however non religious options are available. 

Extension Activity: 

My partner and I tied this into social studies, and or the Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings to extend and integrate this lesson. We did this by connecting the lesson to Standard 3.H.2.3 this will allow you to connect multiple cultures and their needs and connections to basket weaving with the project. If you wish to connect more to the OSEU standards, then the lesson must learn towards Native Americans Culture.

Clay Monsters: Clay Lesson

 Description:

For this lesson we got to create our very own monsters out of clay! We used to air dry clay, so in the photo you will see the bottom of the monster is not painted so that the water can escape from the bottom. This is a very important note to make when performing this lesson. 

Step 1: First, we had to plan out our monster by drawing a blueprint, sort of, for what we planned to do when we were given the clay. This allowed us to think and plan out our project before even opening the clay, which prevented drying.

Step 2: Next, the teachers taught us different ways to work with clay so that we could create whatever kind of monster base that we wanted. They showed us how to slab, wedge, and pinch pot the clay. I use the pinch pot method to create my monster, however other people used different options such as the wedge.

Step 3: After creating our base the teachers told us that we then had to add and subtract something from it. I subtracted spikes from the back of my monster and added an extra eye and a tongue! All of our monsters were required to have a face, so the mouth and basic eyes didn’t count as adding. 

Extension Activity: 

Due to the basics of this lesson, with adding and subtracting I think that a good extension lesson would be to have the students demonstrate adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing all on their monster! An example would be to subtract one of the eyes, leaving your monster with one eye, and add teeth to give his mouth originality. The students could then multiply the arms and give the monster four total arms, and divide a tongue, giving him two! I love that there’s a lot of creativity that can come from this, because students can do this in so many different ways. You can then require them to write an explanation telling you what they added, subtracted, divided and multiplied. As long as they have a good explanation, and try their best, this could be a great project that could end with so many different monsters! A standard to connect the math aspect could be 4.OA.A1-2.

Symmetrical Printmaking: Printmaking Lesson

 Description:

For this next lesson we got to view multiple different artists and their artistic works that represented proper printmaking. After that we got to try our hand at this difficult technique. 

Step 1: First we created a design on a small square of paper. The design was supposed to be connectable when rotated 90°. 

Step 2: Trace this design again with the paper on top of a thin styrofoam square. This will create indents in the shape of your design in the styrofoam. 

Step 3: Create your background by coloring a sheet of paper fully with either all cool or warm colors. I chose cool colors! 

Step 4: Use a metal roller to lightly roll in a glob of ink. Too much ink will ruin the design, but not enough will make it faint. Have your square coated completely but lightly! I chose blank ink. 

Step 5: Choose a corner of your design to be your pivot point. Then center your design and stamp your square completely on the paper to print your first design.

Step 6: Pivot your design and stamp it three more times! To create a rectangle, check example below! 

Extension Activity:

A great extension activity would be to put the students into groups and have them use the printmaking techniques talked about to print out the different continents. The students could decorate their continent with patterns or shapes that represent that continent, for example drawing African designs or animals on the African continent. You can then have the students print their continent that they made onto a large map. This would integrate this fun lesson plan with social studies, geography. An example standard would be 3.G.1.2.

Marbled Gallery: Paper Lesson

Description:

For the second lesson we got to create these masterpieces by first learning about artist Jackson Pollock and his famous “drip technique” where he painted by pouring from the pail, directly onto a canvas!

This is Jackson Pollock’s Drip Painting, 1951

We tried our own drip art a little differently, but they turned out beautiful! We cut out 3 geometric shapes from our plain, white paper and use them to complete the following steps.

Step 1: In an aluminum tray, spray 3 separate piles of shaving cream. Then chose, at least, two colors of food coloring and do three drops of each color into the desired pile of cream. 

Step 2: Use a small popsicle stick to mix around the food coloring into a design of your liking. 

Step 3: Lightly dip the top of your geometric shapes into each pile, one shape per pile of shaving cream. Pull the shape out and use a hard card, business or credit card type, to scape the excess shaving cream off and reveal your design!

Step 4: Glue the shapes onto your background once they dry completely and decorate as desired.

Extension Activity:

An extension activity to this could be learning to mix the primary colors. The students could drip 2 primary colors together in a pile of shaving cream and reveal what complementary color they reveal. 

An integration activity could be in math. The students could cut out different 2D shapes they were learning about (circle, square, rectangle, etc) and create their marbled shapes! An example standard could be 1.G.A.2.