by Linda on June 23, 2010
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.
Tagged as:
art of teaching,
creativity and education,
project-based learning
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.
Tagged as:
art of teaching,
creativity and education,
social justice education,
visual arts activism
by Linda on January 29, 2010
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
Tagged as:
art of teaching,
creativity and education,
project-based learning
by Linda on September 21, 2009
The 6th graders completed a project last week having to do with rare color and creating new and surprising color relationships. This sounds like a project for a Color and Composition course on the college level, which it actually is, come to think of it. I guess I think my students can do anything. A seemingly simple project, more difficult than it appears. I will post the specifices another time in the “Projects” section of this blog.
We have never spent time talking about color wheels, and I ran them through a quick explanation of warm and cool color, and spent a little longer talking about color representing concept or emotion. But I really believe that our relationship with color is intuitive, so I decided to approach the project in an experiential and intuitive manner.
We study color because color is part of our vocabulary, like words and mathematical formulas and music. We also study line and form and light, because these are parts of our vocabulary also. We need all these languages to give voice to our experiences and ideas and dreams.
I want to teach art as if I am teaching a language. I want my students to understand the power of visual voice. I tell them all the time that each time they engage in the creative process, each time they build or paint or adorn, they are connecting themselves to the great chain of humanity that has honored beauty and voice since the beginning of time, that has recorded its collective experience through pictures and sculptures and structures, enduring in the most painful and difficult of circumstances.
When we talk about rare color, we talk about finding a color that is so personal and so unusual in its relationships to other colors that it tells a story that has never been told. A rare color is the newly invented word or note that expresses the experience with impact and clarity. Rare color holds unimaginable powers of expression. Rare color turns the predictable on its head and asks many questions. Each of us, each human being, is a rare color. And just as a painter can spend a lifetime understanding and developing a palette of rare color, each one of us spends our lifetime trying to understand the power of our own rare color.
Tagged as:
art of teaching,
visual arts activism
