Mandalas for Peace

This year, I wanted to take the opportunity to honor Nelson Mandela as well as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for their devoted life work and sacrifice for peace and equality. This lesson took a lot of prep on my part, but it was well worth it.

Our 4th Grade Friendship Art Group helped paint two posters to honor these great men.

Our Kindergarten and 2nd Grade classes, designed these beautiful mandalas. We talked about radial symmetry, looked at lots of examples online, and spent some time talking about how and why mandalas are created. We even watched a youtube video of the creation and destruction of a mandala which was fascinating. The class couldn't get over the fact that mandalas, which are traditionally made from colored sand, are swept up and put back in the nearest river, lake, sea etc after they have been completed.

I provided a plethora of colored shapes for the students to arrange into a design. Sequins and smaller geometric shapes were added at the end to add detail to these great pieces.

I am reminded every year at this time of how brave and tenacious these men were at the most difficult of times. I too dream that my daughters will continue to see progress towards equality and peace for all throughout the world.

 

Native American Art II:Tipi Designs

Paul Goeble has got to be one of my favorite illustrators. My daughter LOVES horses, so I first discovered his book, A Girl Who Loved Horses. While researching for this project, I found so many more of his titles, and they are all incredible. He tells Native Legends alongside the most beautiful illustrations. I think they are authentic, and excellent sources for students.

I started this lesson by sharing how my mom erected a real tipi in our backyard after one of our summer excursions to a local pow wow. It was awesome. My mother's love of building tipis and other structures didn't stop there. We also helped her build a round house out of saplings one year. Needless to say, I was excited to see what these artists would create!

After learning about some Native American Art and design, students studied Goeble's illustration for inspiration. They each sketched out ideas first, and then added color with marker. To finish, artists cut out the tipi, glued it together, and added a stick and a feather to complete their design. During this project, I came across Goeble's, Storm Tipi. I also shared this book with the class, and we learned that tipis were arranged in a circle to greet the rising sun. We decided to follow suit, and here are our tipi circles:

Native American Art I: Mikmaq Legend of Wild Geese

I was very lucky to be exposed to Native American Art by my mother at a young age. I have always had a deep respect for Native American culture and art, and am excited for my students to dive into these projects. 

The 3rd Grade Artists are creating a group installation inspired by the Miqmak Wild Geese Legend. I found this project on the nativeamericanactivities.com website. After listening to the legend and having a class discussion about Native American Art, each artist started designing a goose for our migrating flock. Artists were allowed to choose any two colors of paper to work with, and were given a quick tutorial on how to fold paper to cut out many feather shapes at once.

I was also very happy to try out our new glue routine!!! Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to visit another local art teacher's studio. Her students were using glue soaked sponges for collage, and I quickly vowed to implement this great idea into our studio as well. It saves so much glue, and cuts down on clean up time too. The key is to have the students wash their hands first to keep the sponges clean:)

It is also important to point out to students that the feathers should go off the sides of the template and overlap nicely just like real bird feathers. Once the feathers were finished, artists colored in the head with black marker, added eyes, and added a few black feathers to their design to unify the flock.

While researching for this project, I found a great list of fun facts about migration. I shared it with the class, and they loved it! We decided to include an educational component to our installation. I gave a lesson on graphic design, and we studied cereal boxes, juice boxes etc to see which designs stood out most and why. I always love this lesson!!

Artists broke up into teams of two, and were charged with creating a well designed poster that would ENGAGE, EDUCATE, and EMPOWER our school audience. Each poster design had to include at least two elements/principles of design, and use typography thoughtfully.

We need a few more minutes to finish our posters next week, so I will upload the finished designs soon. We are also trying to find the best place to hang our migrating flock:) I can't wait to see them up!!