Happy New Year!

My blog posting diligence kind of fell off after November, but here are some new photos of the projects my students are currently working on. Right now, they are thinking about and practicing methods of effective collaboration. I gave some direction when needed, but they were able to choose what form their projects take. They are required to work as a class or in small groups. The challenge is to first communicate with their teams about what direction they will go, the theme of the project, etc. Then they must delegate tasks so that the parts of the project are made and come together cohesively. For these particular students, practicing how to shift their thinking from "my work, my ideas" to "our work, our ideas" is really necessary. Hopefully this project will give them the opportunity to strengthen those skills. This lesson format has also allowed me to introduce new art techniques and processes as students need them. They are also seeing how they can really delve into a project when everyone comes together and shares the work. They are having fun watching it unfold.



So far, all three age groups are coming up with great ideas and are showing a lot of skill in working together. Each group is approaching the challenge of collaboration a little differently, and I addressed the issue a little differently in each class. In the photo above, this group is creating a group mural of a neighborhood. We started with a whole class period of learning about watercolor washes. Thinking about the sky in its various states, the students created beautiful washes on small pieces of paper. These separate pieces later came together to form the sky of their group mural. The next class I asked them to spend making buildings and houses. After we had these two basic parts of the mural completed, students naturally started making their own additions--people, trees, playgrounds, a ballerina, and even a few spaceships for good measure! After gluing all the pieces down, students ended their last work session with the idea to make the mural a progression from night time to day time. More photos to come as this progresses!

Below is a project being built by two students in the oldest group of students. At left, another group from this class works on watercolor paintings as part of their project.