Cultural Artifacts & Clay Techniques

Who doesn’t love creating with clay in the art room? Clay is always a fan favorite for any grade level. I particularly enjoyed this unit as it combines basic clay skills with a study of cultural arts from around the globe.

Grade 1 students inquired into the transdisciplinary theme of How the World Works while investigating the central idea; how cultures manipulate the natural world. The students explored three basic clay skills while learning about three different cultural art forms.

The first cultural art form the students learned about was a type of folk art from Oaxaca, Mexico called Oaxacan Animals. The students observed and discussed a variety of Oaxacan Animals and their bright patterns to design a turtle in their sketchbooks. The clay skill they began exploring to create their Oaxacan inspired turtles was the pinch pot.  

 
The next culture we began exploring was from our host country of China. Grade 1 students looked at a variety of Ming Dynasty ceramic vessels. We compared shapes, styles, decorative patterns, and discussed the blue and white colors used in these types of designs. The clay skill the students used to create their own ceramic vessel inspired by Chinese pottery was coiling. Using a variety of coiling techniques, they created some very beautiful coil pots!

 
The last cultural art form the students investigated was African Masks. They looked at a variety of masks from different tribes in Africa, comparing shapes, patterns, and color. The students chose shapes and patterns that they liked to design their own African inspired mask in their sketchbooks. The clay skill Grade 1 students practiced when creating their mask was rolling and cutting slabs of clay. Some students even poked holes in their wet clay to ensure that they could add hair or jewelry to their final piece once it was out of the kiln!  

Artist Trading Cards

Grade 4 students had a blast with this year’s Artist Trading Card unit. They inquired into the central idea of investigation leads to possibilities under the theme of Sharing the Planet.

The students started off the unit by investigating a variety of materials and mixed media to find out which mark making techniques they enjoyed working with. They kept a record of their experiments in their sketchbooks to use as a reference.

 

As the students continued investigating techniques, they were introduced to Artist Trading Cards or ATC’s. Artist Trading Cards are 2.5 x 3.5 inches and are created for a variety of reasons using multiple layers and different mediums. Most importantly, Artist Trading Cards are meant to be traded.

This year Grade 4 students had an exciting opportunity to trade their cards with a school in Iowa, USA. They were absolutely thrilled to send their cards overseas from China! The students were required to donate one card to send to the United States and donate another card to trade with Grade 4 students at our school. They were able to keep the rest of their collection.

Their next artistic challenge was to create a series of cards based on a specific theme, message, or global issue of their choice. They designed their cards with their message in mind and chose specific materials from their technique investigations.

The students did a fantastic job creating quality Artist Trading Cards with a variety of materials and special messages. They had so much fun trading and receiving cards from a different country and each other. I can’t wait to do this unit again!   

Observational Drawing & Artist Studies

Drawing realistically can be a frustrating and challenging task for PYP students. However, observational drawing can be an engaging, fun and useful skill to use and learn from if approached correctly in the classroom.

This unit of inquiry is designed for Grade 2 students but could be easily adapted to fit any grade level. The unit focuses on observational drawing skills, composition, color theory, investigating different drawing materials, and discussing contemporary artists and their work for inspiration. The transdisciplinary theme is under How We Organize Ourselves with the central idea "investigation leads to possibilities."  

At the beginning of the unit we started tuning in by discussing what drawing is and as a class how we felt about it. Many students shared that they thought drawing "the right way" was very hard. In order for all students to feel successful and be accepting of the fact that everyone is at different levels in the artistic process, we watched this beautifully done video called Austin's Butterfly. 

The Grade 2 students really related wonderfully to this video. I paused the clip after each of Austin's draft drawings and the students discussed what could be done better in order to keep trying and "get it right". After numerous discussions during and after the video, the students agreed that they were all capable of improving their drawing skills. As a class it was agreed that they should stay positive and open minded, provide each other with constructive feedback, and keep trying even if they made mistakes. I really emphasized that mistakes are okay, part of the learning process, and that even though they are attempting to capture real life observations, their drawings did not have to be perfect. Perfection was not our goal, only improvement and practicing new skills! 

After a lesson of discussion and simple practice drawings, the students started investigating the first focus artist for this unit. Together we watched a short video clip about Georgia O'Keeffe and talked about her famous flower paintings. The students observed that the flowers filled the page and were bright and colorful.

We then began discussing color theory and how colors can impact an artwork. The students learned about complementary and analogous color groupings, filling out the sheet below as a reference for their sketchbooks. 

They then chose a flower from a stack of photographs that they found interesting and began doing practice drawings. The students focused on the outside lines and shapes they could see within their flower, avoiding small and complicated details. The students were encouraged to sketch their flowers large and go off the page.

After practicing color theory and flower drawings in their sketchbooks, Grade 2 students were ready to start their final paintings on large pieces of paper. The students drew their flower first and painted their drawing in by blending analogous colors. They chose the complementary color of their flower to paint the background. Aren't these beautiful!

 *Another version of these beautiful flower paintings can be found on Paint Brush Rocket, which is what inspired the first part of this unit.

 

Once their flower paintings were complete, Grade 2 students began investigating artworks by contemporary artist Anna Valdez through discussions and See, Think, Wonder activities. Together we focused on composition and how to set up a still life using the rule of thirds. 

Grade 2 students then chose 2-4 objects in the art room to set up their very own still life to draw from. Again they were encouraged to draw large and focus on what they observe. When their objects were complete they added a fun background of their choice, inspired by Valdez's constant use of bright patterns within her work. The students used water color pencils and ink pens to complete these amazing still life drawings.

Throughout this unit the students gained creative confidence and remained resilient while experimenting with different drawing materials and improving their observational skills. They loved learning about inspiring artists and realized the many possibilities that observational drawing has to offer. The students are very proud of their final work!