Thursday, December 8, 2011
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Sewing Craft Project
Sewing For Young Children
By: Jannine Swersky
Materials
1. Stringing shapes/noodles on pipe cleaners/small beads on pipe cleaners
2. Needle point canvas
3. Lacing Cards
4. Sewing Project – Challah Bags
For younger children
1. Give children pipe cleaners and have children put noodles and small beads on them
2. Teach children the motion of going in and out of the canvases (For three and four year olds, I would use a small square/rectangular canvas)
3. Allow children to explore the feeling of sewing the canvas
4. Show children how to sew on fabric
5. Allow children to choose fabric markers to decorate their bag
6. When ready, give children two fabric pieces with dots on where they should sew
Benefits of Sewing
· Fine motor skills
· Hand-eye coordination
· Following Patterns
· Concentration
Resources
§ http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/lacing_cards.htm
§ The Winky Cherry System Of Teaching Young Children to Sew. Winky Cherry (1993)
http://www.helium.com/items/353777-how-to-teach-sewing-to-kids| | |
Monday, December 5, 2011
Cornstarch Clay Craft Project
Cornstarch Clay!
Recipe
-2/3 cup of salt
-1/3 cup of baking soda
-1/2 cup of cornstarch
-1/2 cup of water
-1 note to your roommates warning them that this is not mashed potatoes!
Combine all ingredients (except the note to your roommates!) in a small saucepan. Heat over medium heat and stir as the mixture begins to bubble. Continue stirring until you feel the mixture solidifying (the jump will be sudden!). Remove from the heat, place your dough in a container/bowl to cool. It’s time to play!
Note: You may choose to add food coloring to give color to your dough. Kids can also draw on the dough with markers to give it color while they play!
Now I cooked it…what do I do with my students!?!?!
In room 601B we….
-Set it up as a center for our Kindergarteners
-Encouraged them to explore the clay in multiple ways
-Just play with it, how is it different from other dough’s and clay’s we have explored? How is it the same? This can help support descriptive vocabulary and provide a sensory experience to young learners.
-Can we make the letters with our dough? This has supported our literacy program as children get to “feel” the letters they are learning. The dough dries over night giving us “Letter Statues”.
-Have children explore the shapes that build a person! In studying “the self” in 601B we “built” family portraits to share with each other.
Paper Making Craft Project
Paper making
Materials
1. Torn Scrap Paper and/or Newspaper
2. Water
3. Wooden frame with a fitted screen
4. Large bowl or bucket
5. Oven (Optional)
6. Blender
Paper Making Instructions
Tear up the scrap paper into small pieces. If your students are able to, have them help you. Sometimes being destructive can be fun! Fill the blender up with the paper and cover the paper with water. Warn the children that the blender is very loud, have them stand back, and blend the mixture until it’s a mushy oatmeal consistency. Hold the wooden frame screen over the bowl or bucket and pour the mixture on top of the screen. Have your students take turns flattening the mixture down with their hands and/or a sponge. The goal of the pressing is to get as much water out as possible. If it’s a hot and sunny day, you can leave the screen out in a safe place and wait for it to dry. If it is cold outside, it might be best to dry it with a hairdryer, or let it sit in an oven at about 150 degrees for 3-4 hours, depending on how thick you choose to make the paper.
Introducing the art of paper making to students
Papermaking is an excellent opportunity to present the idea of recycling to your students. Ask if any of them know what recycling is and if they practice it in their homes. I told my three year old (who I did this project with) that recycling was taking something old and reusing it and making it into something new. If you use different kinds of scrap paper it might be interesting to ask your students what makes the paper different. How do they feel different? How do they look different? Words including soft, rough, smooth, shiny, dark and light could be introduced, depending on the variety of paper you provide.
When pressing the paper mixture down into the screen, it’s important to encourage your students to be gentle. You don’t want them to break the screen or un-flatten the mixture. You can also have them guess what color the mixture will turn out to be if you’re mixed multicolored paper.
Resources
How to Make Paper- An Illustrated Step-by-Step Guide 96 by Stacie Naczeinik
Solidwastedistrict.com
My Prints
My prints were made using temper paint, colored paper, lego pieces, forks, bottle tops, and two prints I carved out of rubber erasers.
Response to Eisner, Dissanayake, and Shirrmacher Article
Children’s Play and Learning – Perspectives and Policy Implications
The Role of Art and Play in Children’s Cognitive Development
“Brains are biologically given, minds are culturally acquired” (Cole, 1985)
When I think of childhood, my mind automatically think of running free with few life responsibilities, various kinds of play opportunities, casual and sometimes fleeting friendships, and eventually a school schedule that becomes more time consuming and serious with each year. This, of course, is my perspective as an adult with a young child, and is probably slightly idolized and envious due to the wide array of current responsibilities on my plate. This idolized glance back of play and art in the lives of children can, at first, not seem to be highly purposeful and only prevalent due to the limited responsibilities of childhood. However, retrospectively, and with the educational studies I have experienced, there is so much evidence that proves play and art have an intracle role in development.
“Both art and play, like imagination and fantasy, are not regarded as a part of the serious business of schooling. To be serious requires clear goals, a well thought out plan for achieving them and, perhaps, most of all, hard work.” (Eisner. 1990) Our current American society does not regard play and art as work possibilities. Generally they are kept very separate and with the current educational system, art and playtime are having less of a presence, while other academics and activities take precedence. There are many different types of play that develop different types of skills and a variety of art forms as well. It isn’t all free and without purpose, as some might think.
In regards to play, there is explorative play, games with rules, parallel playing, and performance. These different kinds or play can help children develop interpersonal skills, listening skills, public speaking skills, improvisation skills, and most importantly allow them to “determine the possibilities of objects, events, qualities, and ideas.” (Eisner. 1990) Exploring the imagination can later lead to interesting story writing, play writing, scientific hypothesis, to name a few. Music can help with math, dance can help children stay fit and learn about their anatomy and physical limits and possibilities of their body.
In regards to art, there is physical art (painting, drawing, collage, puppetry, clay, etc), music, and dance. These different art forms can help children make sense of their world using their senses. The more a child is exposed to, the more opportunities they have for advancement. The more you read o a child, the larger their vocabulary, the wider variety of food you given them, the more advanced their palate, etc. Allowing children to get messy, play, and experience the world around them by touching, observing, and testing things out, can only lead to a greater understanding. Art can additionally be an excellent way for children to express themselves, help them to figure out their own personal voice.
By a very young age, children spend majority of their time in school. Due to the amount to time spent there, it can become one of their strongest influences. Their development, cognitive and physical, is also affected by the home and/or day care experiences they had prior to having a regular school schedule. The nature of the family, the amount they were read to, time spent in nature, food they ate, all play a role. After a child’s school schedule picks up, those “home” components still play an important role in the development of children. Providing artistic experiences in the school setting for children can open their eyes of perception. Encouraging children to observe different kinds of art forms and experience them themselves can lend a hand in various academic subjects. Science, for example, uses a very similar process to that of the artistic experience. Art and play: “Both engage imagination, both require reflection, both profit from skill, both seek to generate new forms of experience, both lead to invention, and both are marginalized in the priorities of American education.” (Eisner. 1990)
Puppet Making Journal
Since I had missed the previous session where my classmates began their puppet making/paper mache experience, I just had to jump right into it. At first, it was a little intimidating because it seemed as though everyone knew what they were doing, and I saw a variety of different styles and creative choices. Luckily I was able to join a group that had already been established and Ms. Gwathmey provided a book and some helpful instruction about making a hand puppet.
I noticed that there were many different art techniques that went into the puppet making. There was a design component, paper mache, sewing, and painting. The paper mache and design were relatively easy for me to pick up, but the sewing was a little more difficult. I come from a family of talented seamstresses. My great grandfather was a successful tailor. He taught my grandmother how to sew, my father is an excellent surgeon, and my older sister also picked up on the skill. When we were little, and used to play with dolls, I would come up with extensive imaginary games, while my sister would sew them detailed ensembles. A few people over the years attempted to teach me how to sew, but I never really picked up the skill. Looking back now, I think I was jealous and intimidated by the advanced abilities of my family members and I let that inhibit me from learning the skill they excelled in because I feared that I wouldn’t be as good at it.
One of my group members was very encouraging and walked me through some of the sewing questions I had. In a classroom, students will have various skills and be naturally talented in certain capacities while they may struggle in others. As teachers, we won’t necessarily be able to know all of the stories as to why they excel or struggle, but it’s our role to be aware and allow them to shine and encourage them when necessary.
11.17.11 Paper Mache!
I was absent for the initial explanation of paper mache, but was able to pick up on making a puppet the follow class.
Response to Environment Study Slide Show
In every class, other then art, apparently I have a problem with designing age appropriate and well spaced out curriculum. I recently designed a science themed trip to the metropolitan museum of art for what I thought would be appropriate for first graders. The questions and activities were all beyond the capacity of a typical six year old. After being told that, I reviewed my paper and realized that even though the trip, activities, and exploratory questions were well thought out, it wasn’t developmentally appropriate. I could still take the six graders to the same exhibit in the museum, I would just have to frame the activities differently and ask more general questions that they can understand.
I told this story because if reminds me of the slide show Ms. Gwathmey showed us about different levels of students studying their environment using the arts. Bank Street does a really excellent job of allowing children to ‘do’ and learn about the world around them. The pictures in the slide show showed various studies of the environment from the age of 4-10. Each age group was studying their environment at a level they could understand. The 4/5 year olds went to Central Park and recreated a map of the park; the 5/6 created their own bakery; 7/8 built a model of the Hudson River and learned its history; the 8/9 studied New Amsterdam and participated in art projects and crafts that would have been done at that time; 9/10 studied the continent of Africa and again, participated in art projects and crafts that would have been done in the places they studied. With each additional age, the children were able to explore an environment in a slightly more abstract way. This kind of thinking is only possible once the concrete ways of thinking have been exercised.
Analysis of Children's Paintings
Nancy Smith: Experience & Art
- Pre-representation Stage
a. Motions and the marks they make (In this stage, children age 1.5-3 are focused on ‘motoric and kinesthetic sensations’ (page 6), painting with repetitive and jerky movements.
Description and Analysis: This child used blue and gray paint. There are two blue circles, one larger than the other, that are connected by one of the circle motions made in the larger circle. To the right of the larger circle there is an oval-like gray shape that has short horizontal and diagonal lines coming out of it. Over the three shapes, there are multiple blue and gray slightly faded sweeping lines. The painting is mostly in the center of the paper.
I put this painting in this first stage because of the circular motions and reflex-like nature of the sweeping brush strokes. There is not much variation in color; the child only used blue and gray. It appeared as though they were experimenting in different ways of using the paintbrush; up and down, round and round, zigzag. “Three year olds repeat the same kind of lines and shapes on top of each other, creating inadvertent order.” (Page 13)
Possible motivation: Explore what your brush can do. What kinds of shapes, lines, and dots can you make?
Comment to painter: “I see you chose to paint with blue and gray. There are lines on your paper that go up and down and side-to-side.”
b. Finding out about lines, shapes, and colors (In this stage, children age 3-5, have a greater understanding of graphic concepts. Their hand-eye coordination is more advanced, as is their understanding of lines, shapes, and colors. Their actions become slightly more direct.)
Description and Analysis: This child used red, blue, black, and orange paint. There is a thick, orange horizontal base shape that resembles a rectangle. On top of the orange base, there is a blob-like shape that is mostly red, with some mixing of black and a little blue. A few thin orange lines stick out of the right side of the entire shape as well as one floating above it.
I put this painting in the second sub-category of the first stage because the painter used “irregular and rambling shapes and also squares or rectangles.” (Page 24) They began mixing some colors on the paper, creating new colors, but still keeping some of the colors separate.
Possible motivation: What happens when you mix colors on your paper?
Comment to painter: “I see you mixed red, black, and orange on your paper. The mixing of the colors made a darker color, especially when you mixed black with red.
c. Design (In this stage, children age 4-6, use a more complex combination of lines, shapes, and colors. The arrangements of these various components really begin to stand out.)
Description and Analysis: This child used pink, purple, green, blue, and red circles. The same colored lines connect them. On top of the web-like design, there are multi colored, almost rainbow colored dots that go two parallel horizontal lines and trail off into one vertical line. On the bottom right corner, there is a yellow oval.
I put this painting in the third sub-category of the first page because the “the results of this concentration and deliberation are revealed in the careful order of their designs.” (Page 33) The child made the “configuration fit together as a whole on the paper.” (Page 32) The circles being connected with lines appeared to be such a deliberate design choice on the part of the painter. I additionally found the complex mixing of colors in the small dots quite pertinent to this stage of development.
Possible Motivation: What is a design? Think about the different components that can go into a design and use some of them today. Feel free to mix colors, as you like.
Comment to painter: “I see many circles on your page of different colors. You connected them with lines using the same colors. I see that you mixed some of those colors into the dots that line the top and side of your page.”
- Simple Images (In this stage, children age 5-7, are able to use logical thought and have more organized minds. They tend to paint in general categories initially and then later add sub-categories such as gender. Indicators are additionally added to scenes that determine if they are depicting an indoor or outdoor scene.)
Description and Analysis: This child painted a blue sky, a yellow sun, yellow grass, and a brown and black leopard. The grass is made up of tall, parallel, vertical, yellow lines. The sky is made up of blue zig zaggy lines. The head is a square; the ears are small circles, the body, legs and tail and rectangles. The black spots are pretty evenly spaced throughout the animal.
I put this painting in the simple images category because the painter painted the “the essential parts of an object, relating them to the basic graphic elements they have learned (circle, rectangle, line, and dot) and assembling whole symbols…” (Page 59)
Possible motivation: What is your favorite animal?
Comment to painter: “I see you drew an animal with spots. It has a long tail. The sun is in the center of your painting. It’s very big and yellow.
- Richer Symbols: Friends, Workers, City Streets (In this stage, children 7-9, have a larger range of interests and know about more things and places. They are hungry for knowledge and do not necessarily paint in perspective.)
Description and Analysis: This child painted a red dragon with orange fire coming out of its mouth. It is standing in front of a gray/blue/green castle with a small red flag on the top on it. They obviously mixed their own colors, creating an olive/yellow green, a pinkinsh red, and the previously mentioned gray/blue/green.
I put this painting in the Richer Symbols category because the painting is not in perspective. “In the representation of space children are still indifferent to the convention of perspective; nevertheless they design the whole paper as a unit of space.” (Page 77)All of the choices made in this painting appear to be deliberate and that the artist was clear about the object, in this case a dragon in front of a castle, they chose to paint.
Possible motivation: Paint animals with tails.
Comment to painter: “I see you mixed some of your own colors in this painting. What colors did you use to make the light green color? You used a lot of detail in the dragon, with the black lines on the wings, the horns, the fire, the blue eyes, and the arms and legs.
- Metaphors and Styles: The Den of a Wolf, A Cat on a Cushion (In this stage, children age 9-11, begin to use metaphors in order to depict emotions or concepts. They show interest in specific styles of painting, shadowing, cartoons, and have a heightened awareness of perspective.)
Description and Analysis: This child painted a scene with two artists: a painter and a dancer. There is a sky-line with a vibrant choice of firey colors. The painter is in the front center o the pager and had facial attributes that depict contentment or happiness. The dancer is in the left side of the page and is in a familiar dance pose.
I put this painting in the Metaphors and Styles category because the painter clearly depicted emotion in the artist they painted. There is clearly a heightened sense of perspective that can be seen with the size of the easel in relation to the painter, as well as the smaller size of the dance that appear as though they are supposed to be more in the background. The fiery use of colors in the sky is vibrant and gives off a warm and inspiring feel.
Possible motivation: What is your favorite hobby?
Comment to painter: There is a lot of detail in your piece. The designs in the sweater, the paint colors on the easel, the highlights in the painter’s hair, and the vibrant colors of the sky.
- Luna’s Painting Exploration
Description: Luna, age 3, used orange, black, red, green, purple, white, and yellow in this painting. The colors remained relatively separate. She painted the colors in thick horizontals lines on top of each other. The orange line surrounds the entire pile of lines. On the left bottom corner, she made orange dots that are slightly overlapping.
I put this painting in the second sub-category of the first stage of learning the elements because she used a vaiety of colors and similar shaped lines. “Often they try to keep the colors separate,” (Page 24) which she chose to do.
Motivation: I presented Luna with a new set of paints. Instead of giving her an idea of what to paint, I demonstrated a process of painting with different colors. First I dipped the paint into a specific color, painted with it, put the brush in water, dabbed it with a wet paper towel, and then chose a new color with the clean brush.
Response to Rika Burnham's If You Don't Stop, You Don't See Anything
The more I read about it and experience it, the more I realize that art is a very difficult subject to teach. There is so much judgment about what is good art, what is bad art, what is significant about a particular piece, which the most important artist are and why. The language used in art can be very “mysterious” to those who aren’t around it all the time, which unfortunately, is a growing number of people as art programs are quickly being taken out of schools and curriculum.
This growing lack of knowledge, ignorance if you may, like all ignorance, can create fear within people, as well as their own judgments. SO when a student is presented with a reference to a specific art time period or noted style of painting, and they have no previous context in which they could have learned this, it’s expected that their reaction might not always be excitement. They may become embarrassed by their lack of knowledge; or they may tune out whatever is being said to them because they don’t understand it.
A teacher should never assume that everyone has the same common knowledge about a subject. I remember, when I was younger, I switched from private school to public in middle school. There were some subjects that were taught differently in my previous school system and a few topics that I hadn’t learned. I remember very clearly asking in math class once what a certain idea meant and my teacher snapped back at me saying, ‘you should know that.” Regardless of the fact that the specific idea should have been ‘common knowledge’ for me by this stage in my development, I didn’t know it. Furthermore, as a teacher, one should not make a student feel bad about not knowing something they may not have taught them. Teachers need to be patient and aware that students internalize different topics at different speeds. Sometimes it’s okay to go back, take it slow, and re-teach something, or even listen to you students and learn from them. This idea relates to art as well. As expressed by Rika Burnham when referencing a museum trip with her students,
“It was time for me to stop lecturing and begin listening, not only to what the students had o say about art, but what they had to say about the experience of art.”
The doing and observing of art can be such a uniquely different experience for every person. So putting a lot of per-conceived ideas onto young minds as to what it ‘should’ be can be stifling and not inspirational. The history and previous analysis of art has it’s place but so does allowing fresh eyes to make new observations. “The greatest gift we can give our students in the museum is the acceptance of their responses”. As teachers we must let them find joy in ‘looking and thinking”.
Field Trip to the Metropolitan Muesum of Art
I missed the initial museum trip experience due to illness and had the opportunity to make up the trip. I brought my three-year-old daughter Luna with me, which made the experience very interesting, getting to see her perspective on the art we were observing. We focused on only one section of African masks.
I found it very interesting when Ms. Gwathmey said that on trips, it’s a. and M focus completely on one. This is a very opposing idea to how school trips I went on to the Metropolitan Museum of Art went as a child. They were sensory overloads, missions for too much information. I feel that this slow pace and sole focus could make for a significantly richer trip.
When looking at the masks we noted the varying shapes, colors, positions, and tried to visualize how they were actually worn. My daughter pointed these details out quite clearly, and once most of the class left, she positioned herself like two of the masks. One was upside down and the other was a squatting monkey.
We were asked to draw at least one of the masks. I did a very simple sketch of one of them and took a picture of all of them as well. I drew a flat version of a 3-dimensional mask and wondered, while drawing, if the inability to draw 3-dimentionally would bother children of a certain age. Probably the younger children wouldn’t notice as much, but I would imagine the older ones wanting to do a more accurate representation. Luna had no interest in drawing the masks; she drew a ‘volcano house’ instead.
Once the trip was over, I let Luna lead me around where she wanted to go. She was fascinated with many of the European sculptures of people. She commented on their color and the moods they appeared to be in. “He looks sad, where is his mommy? This one fell down…that one is broken.” Going through a few exhibits and seeing her very concrete perspective was fascinating.
Second Painting Exploration
Notes:
Be careful with making kids examples, try to be diplomatic because they don't like to feel singled out
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