Unit 4: Celebrations
This is my puppy, Charlie. I love him to pieces, and he has the funniest personality for a dog.
Artist: Nick Cave
- Finger Puppets: Modeling Compound
**do not mind the little blue boxes.. couldn't figure out how to get rid of them.
youth_magazine_.docx | |
File Size: | 2074 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Artist Norman Rockwell
- Celebrating 21st Century America: Graphic Design
Artist: Miriam Schapiro
- Artist's Choice
Unit 4: Celebrations Reflection
In this unit, we studied celebrations. I really enjoyed this unit because celebrations can be a broad topic and everyone is celebrating some event or milestone in their life at many points in time. Celebrations are important to have in your life, as said by Oprah Winfrey, "the more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate." (Goodreads, 2014). This just gives meaning to celebrating all good and bad things that happen in your life, anything can be celebrated in some way. In the first studio, we created finger puppets out of cloud clay to celebrate something or someone important in our lives. I chose to make a finger puppet of my puppy, Charlie. I wanted to "Celebrate" his life because he brings so much joy and happiness to my life and every time I get to see him, it feels like a celebration. I made him a big blue bow-tie because I wanted to create his little blue boned collar and have it jingle, but I could not figure out the right way to do it. I used googly eyes for his eyeballs, and the colors or black, grey and white for his fur color. He has tints of grey all in his coat of fur, so I wanted him to be tinted grey. I think it is important for students to make art about their family or home life to celebrate. For the second studio, we studied Norman Rockwell and his idea of magazine covers. I loved this studio because it allowed for us to use our own pictures we have taken to create a 21st century magazine cover. I wanted to show the celebration of youth through my magazine cover. I used three "selfie" pictures I have taken with a young girl I used to babysit. She is an amazing little girl and actually reminds me of how I used to be when I was her age. She kept me young, by playing barbies or drawing and more. I also chose to put a picture of my Grandma on her birthday cheers-ing showing that she is celebrating her age with fun. Even if you aren't young anymore, you can act it and be proud of where you are today. I also chose simple quotes and statements about being young and how to stay or feel young. I liked the idea of celebrating youth because life goes by too fast and it's better to live in the moment. The last studio we did in class was our choice. I chose to make a collage with pictures, text and using water colored pencils to display Spring. This collage is a spin off my final lesson plan project for the arts integration with science and literacy. I wanted to make an example to show, so when I implement my lesson in my class, I can show my piece of work to give my students a good idea of what one's collage may consist of. In all, celebrations are important to fulfill a happy life. From Pink's A Whole New Mind, he quotes, "among the things that contribute to happiness are engaging in satisfying work, avoiding negative events and emotions, being married and having a rich social network." (pg. 226, 2006)
These studios can easily be used in the classroom with arts integration. I know a few of these ideas have been shared in class but I wanted to touch upon each one with my own idea. I thought the finger puppets would be a great way to use for literacy in the class. Students can create their puppet based on a story they have recently read, or students could create their puppet and write a creative story about their new "character". Depending on the grade level, you could explore all different forms of puppets such as sock puppets, string puppets and stick puppets. I love this idea because the class could build community by sharing their creative writing or by creating a story with every student's puppet together. For the second studio of creating a magazine cover, this could really be integrated into any subject area. It is such a broad idea that can be used for anything. I would love for my students to research a social studies idea or science, and create a magazine cover based on what they have learned. Then they could work in pairs or groups and tie in their ideas by creating a few articles inside their magazine. This would apply to literacy as well if you take it that far into a lesson. I like the idea of creating a magazine because students would have so many great ideas to include in a magazine cover and article to show their knowledge and research. The last studio piece I created, was for my integrated lesson as it is. It is where students would listen to a read aloud about Spring time then talk about the differences and similarities between Spring and Winter. Then students would write a poem about their favorite seasonal activity and a collage to go along with the poem.