Why YES! those are my thoughts exactly. :) I just can't get enough!

What will you make today??

Adinkra Art

Today we learned about the Adinkra Tribe in Africa and how they use symbols in art. 

  

We talked about some essential questions. What are symbols? How are symbols used in art? Why do you think this tribe used symbols in their art to tell a story? 

 I had them pick an object from their backpack that was important to them or had a special story behind it. We talked about their objects in a circle on the floor and all were eager to share their story.

 I said that it's hard not to have a personal connection with our art form. Art is our own style and how we communicate our interests and our own individual personalities.

 First, I showed them symbols they see in everyday life. I explained that art is all around us, communicating thoughts and ideas with us all the time. We looked at pictures of Adinkra symbols and then asked them to go back to their seats to create their own "story" on their fabric square. First they sketched out their designs with pencil, then they outlined with sharpies, and filled in color with watercolor.

 Students were to create symbols on fabric to make their own story based from the designs they discovered they had a connection with.

I was surprised that a lot of students wanted to make up their own symbols, so I thought that if they had a stronger connection to something else, it would be easier for them to express that. 

Beautiful Oops :)

This was such a fun lesson and really opened the student's eyes, with lessons learned of adjusting our mistakes that we make in art, and life. 

We talked about how most times when mistakes happen it's a surprise, so we have to learn to adjust out minds to making it work for us, not against us.

We read Beautiful Oops by Barney Saltzberg. The kids really enjoyed how interactive the book was. The major lesson that they took from it is to see your mistakes as opportunities for creativity. We all loved the touchable “oopses” in this book, like the tear of a piece of paper in the book that becomes the smile of a happy dog when you turn the page!

The lesson objective was that the students will create a piece of artwork that shows how mistakes can be made into something beautiful. 

I would totally recommend this book to anyone. It's one of my favorites of all time. :)

 

After reading the book, I showed them my example of my Beautiful Oops and all the different ways I incorporated different "oopsies" into my collage. (Rips, stains, drips, tears, bends, folds, etc.) Then we talked about how these took on a whole new life of their own in their new form of a collage. I talked about how my biggest oopsies became my most favorite parts.

The students then went back to their tables where I distributed a bunch of "mistakes" or "oops'" on their tables and they were to come up with their own piece of art in the form of a collage. 

  Here one student used the ripped pieces of paper and tissue, magazine clippings, and added details with markers and chalk pastels .

I'm noticing a lot of hearts on a lot of their pictures! :) This makes me happy.