hi stacie,
talk about trial by fire!! you should be very proud of yourself for
all your efforts and the care you are showing for these kids. i think
you are reaching the turning point with them and will soon find your
reward. in the end, they will adore you!
also GO to the chihuly show! it will blow you away. what are the
chances of arranging a field trip for your class to see the exhibit?!
then they might do watercolors in response to their favorite piece(s).
on romare bearden... i'll tell you my favorite lesson based on his
"city block" piece. it is a very long piece showing a city block
-harlem style - with all the buildings and goings on... store fronts, a
funeral, people sitting out on the stoops, street musicians, also
people in windows looking out and views into the windows of apartments,
etc. (there is one view you might want to sensor but if your
reproduction is small enough they may not notice). the original exhibit
of this work included a sound track of city noise, honking horns,
people talking, etc. for my lesson the kids first print "brick"
patterned paper using meat tray printing blocks. while that is drying,
they mark off 4" on the bottom of a vertical paper 12x18 for the
sidewalk. they watercolor the whole page grayish on the bottom and any
sky colors they want for the rest. now for the collage. they have to
have 3 rectangles for buildings of different heights. one is from the
brick patterned print, one is from a wall paper book, and the 3rd is
const paper that they draw a texture on w/ crayons (stones, clapboards,
whatever.) next come the windows and doors, stairs, railings, fire
escape stairs, and street furniture like fire hydrants, parking signs,
mailboxes, etc. last are the people, dogs & cats, birds, etc. after the
3 building rectangles are in, they can use any kinds of scraps and
magazines to do the rest. when they are all done, i display them as one
long city block out in the hall. because the sidewalks are all 4", they
line up just right. also i arrange the various sky colors to express
passing time, dark skies at each end, sunrises/sets next and blue skies
in the middle. (so what if there are 14 suns!)
the kids absolutely love this lesson and their products are so
imaginative.
good luck and hope your voice comes back soon.
linda in michigan
On Jan 19, 2006, at 10:37 PM, StacieMich@aol.com wrote:
> Wow, it's been a rough few weeks. At least I can say that I didn't
> feel like
> crying the last two days. That is improvement. Last week was rough.
> I'm
> still sick (going on three weeks now), and I lost my voice this week!
> ...Ugh. At least I was able to laugh about it today,
> The following week, I'd like to do a project on Romare Bearden, and
> have them
> try some collage. If you have any especially good projects you have
> used,
> I'd love to know. I got a good video on him and a nice book.
