An array of simple materials ready for transformation.  Art is math is sport is science is philosophy is great design.

  Begin by creating templates for the hexagons and pentagons.  For this model, each edge measures 3 3/4 inches.  In some classes, I have them actually draft each shape using compasses, rulers, and mathematics.  But this time, we just created and traced the templates.

 The next task: to determine how many hexagons/pentagons you can get on the posterboard.  We didn’t want to waste any paper! It did not take long to figure out what the tile pattern had to be in order to get 9 hexagons on each sheet (the maximum possible).  All pieces have to be precisely cut.

  Cutting takes some practice, but we all help each other out until every student has a total of 32 pieces.

  Another pattern emerges as we begin to construct the polyhedra.

   Bit by bit, the room fills up with completed models. 

This polyhedra is called a truncated icosahedron.  I chose this particular model to build to honor the world cup fever that is sweeping the classroom these days.  Finished product:  fabulous!  A room full of these hanging from the ceiling is an amazing sight. The equation V-E+F=2 applies to all regular polyhedron.  This formula was worked out by Euler  in the 1700’s and has been pondered ever since. V=vertices, E=edges, F=faces.     The truncated icosahedron has 60 vertices, 90 edges, 32 faces.  Do the math!     http://www.korthalsaltes.com/ for more templates and interesting projects.

The past couple of months has been a whirlwind of activity and creativity.  Spring has actually flown by, as it does in the desert, and summer is on the doorstep.  A few more days of school, and we break for our summer program.  In the middle of it all I was wondering what was actually being accomplished.  Now, looking back, I am amazed at all that was created.  The artspace is overflowing with works.

I decided to participate in the Global Art Project for Peace  this year.  I let the students take the lead,  and just observed the discussions as they developed the theme for their collaborative work.

After brainstorming and deciding on the main theme, they began realizing their ideas.

Hands on fire!

and the final piece…….

This program matches schools, individuals, and organizations around the world to participate in the art exchange.  We will be mailing our piece to a school in Pennsylvania, and are looking forward to  receiving one from them as well. 

My fifth-grade students were the artists behind this effort, and have since worked collaboratively to write some lyrics that will be set to music by a friend of mine (Thanks Michael!) who is a brilliant visual artist and musician in his own right.  Here are their words:

A Place to Shine
 
Our strength is in our friendship
Our power is in our love
Doing the right thing
brings happiness to our world.
We build a place to shine,
Our hands, our hearts, our minds,
strengthen humankind
and our creativity
will protect our Earth,
the blue-green jewel that is our home
and a gift.
So all the birds and fish and animals that run
will sing together with grace
for our success.
Sing with them! Our voices calling out
all the names of beauty!
Trees flowers seeds animals people water air sky moon fruits minerals breezes stars oceans planets rain
rainbows rivers lightening shining sun waterfalls thunder skies night rivers fish butterflies the sun the moon tears of joy cries of sadness
clapping hands building houses planting giving singing laughing
put it all together and we
have a place to shine.

I realized today that there is really so much going on in the classroom these days.  I mean, so much.  Sometimes I am glad I don’t really think about things too much in advance, or I would stop myself out of a sense of practicality.  Having said that, we best not take on anything else at the moment, well, at least not until April.

In a nutshell, it looks like this:

Roots and Shoots  project having to do with endangerment of local riparian areas:

Collaborative work to create a mural-size atlas of endangerment as well as a timeline of extinction:

Creating a re-working of the Japanese story “Peach Boy” for the Tucson Festival of Books (the 5th graders will be creating props and telling the story at that event):

Designing and creating a sculpture out of re-purposed materials that will be a permanent fixture at a new “park” ( currently a dirt lot, a grant was made available to turn the lot into a “green spot”):

The mural!  To be painted and installed on the Big Brothers/Big Sisters building:

Preparing to participate in the Global Art Project for Peace:

Mentoring the local public school through their architecture competition (my team is doing a great job demonstrating leadership!):

signing on for Destination Imagination (sounds like we are already there…)

as well as the daily creative work……weaving, building mathematical models, designing the ideal skatepark, mapmaking, origami, calligraphy………

“Creativity is as important in education as literacy, and should be treated with the same status”.  – Sir Ken Robinson

Wings by Marilyn, grade 6

Inspired by the Independent Lens documentary Between the Folds, we worked with the most basic of materials, paper, to express what we know about the world around us.

I put away the origami books, so that the students would just fold and crumple and crease, to discover what the paper could do and what it could tell us.

We folded for over an hour, working quietly.  The result: a collection of new and inspiring forms, a renewed interest in origami, and some beautiful sculpture to hang in the art space.

One Love by Sahara, grade 8                              Introducing slow art to the classroom, like taking a deep breath of cool, fresh air.  All the materials were found at local thrift shops.

 Great to see that all the students are interested in trying.

Materials we used:   Cast-off shoes, nuts, bolts, screws, collected wire, aluminum cans, disposable

aluminum trays, bottle caps, bits of wood, stick, acrylic paint (I rarely advocate the use of acrylic paint)

plastic packaging, soda bottles, re-purposed paper clips, brads, glue gun and much thought.

In the eco-artspace, most of our projects are done in groups. As I refine my ideas about teaching for sustainability, I begine to realize how multi-faceted that idea is in its application. Teach by doing.  Live the ideas and give over to the process of learning and working.

Collaborative work is sustainable work.  Ebb and flow of ideas, honoring change and dissent, a conversation in motion.

A while back, 25 students worked on a series of monoprints.  They worked on the same plate, which was a donated piece of scrap plexiglass, abour 24×32.  We printed on paper left over from a printing business.  We used Akua Soy-based non-toxic inks. Each student had an opportunity to respond to the image left on the plate by the previous students.  The printed images are the result of many eyes and hands.  We were thinking of photographs of the microscopic natural world- cells, paramecium, crystal formations. The works were done with the 1-3 grade class.

Ghost images of leaves, roots, stones honoring the beauty of the natural world.

Using sun-reactive paint, silk, leaves, sticks, stones and sunshine,the students created 9-ft banners that hang from ceiling to floor. 

Here we are working on our paper mache models of endangered and extinct animals as part of our 2-quarter inquiry into issues surrounding extinction.

The students worked in groups, first researching and choosing an animal to represent.  Then they began creating the animals out of newspaper and refuse from the school, including gallon juice and milk jugs, cardboard, shredded paper, packaging materials.  The only thing we purchased new for the project was masking tape and white flour to make the paper mache.

All in all there are ten animals being made, each averaging 4 ft. tall/long.  I used flour, water and cinnamon and cooked the paper mache/glue, which is so much easier to work with than the sandard water/flour paste mixture.  The students liked the cinnamon smell as well.