Sunday, February 17, 2013

Mona Lisa Parodies

Wow! I have amazingly creative 3rd graders!  This has been a project that has been so exciting for ALL of us!  Everyone's art looks so unique and personalized.  I must admit I was really nervous about this project because I knew kids were going to need help left and right in order to figure out how to put their unique imaginations onto paper.  I'm so glad that I took a risk on this project idea. The rich opportunity for creativity and problem solving outweighed the pressure I feel to have a good product for parents to appreciate.  In the end, it turns out that my 3rd graders have already been developing the confidence and skills to handle the stress this project puts on them.  Sometimes I get nervous about pushing the envelope on this because at the end of the day no art teacher wants to give students more than they can handle and harm the trust our kids have in us!

First we looked at parodies of the Mona Lisa created by other famous artists (and some not so famous). We noticed that we knew it was the Mona Lisa mostly because of the face and the hand position.

Parody: A funny version of a famous picture, story or song.

We came up with a list of possible parodies we could illustrate using the face and hands of the Mona Lisa.  I found the kids understood it best when I explained that we needed to think of the Mona Lisa as an actress.  As a group we made a list of the roles the kids wanted her to play. (We laughed and laughed at these ideas).

Through my examples, I gave students the basic idea of how to show Mona leaning on something or standing showing her whole body.  From this point, students took off on their own and I moved around the room from student to student helping solve individual needs, providing advice and suggestions.

Learning Goals: I can...
- Tell about the Mona Lisa (here is a link to the video we watched)
- Explain what a parody is
- Create a unique Mona Lisa Parody
- Pencil lightly (so I can erase)
- Add color carefully








... and some finished masterpieces!












10 comments:

  1. I love these! What size of paper are they using? Did you Xerox a ton of pictures of Mona Lisa's face for the kids to cut out of? :)

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    1. We used 16x22 inch paper (so that 18x24 will work for matting). I created a document with the face and the hands and used the program to draw a white outline onto the hands and arms so that the kids would know where to cut (it can be confusing with all the shadows). I copied them so that the ink would be permanent for those kids who wanted to add color onto the photocopies!

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  2. I love this idea! I have done a similar project for years with mixed results. I had students trace Mona Lisa's face and hands onto a thin sheet of paper and then add the rest of their own ideas. I am doing it your way this week and the results are so much better! So much less frustrations for both students and myself! Thank you! I didn't read your comment before we began so I did it a little differently. I cut out her face and arms and just copied those onto paper on the copy machine, so it was pretty simple for them to cut out. Thank you and great idea, and great results from your students. My students love the monkey picture! Ha!

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    1. I'm glad it helped! I think cutting them out and then copying them is the way to go! I'm glad my students' examples were inspiring for your kiddos!

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    2. I have done a similar project with third grade students also. Love how yours came out.

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  3. Great project!

    I was wondering how long it took your kids to complete this? I need to create a one 45 minute lesson plan and was wondering if you thought that would be enough time? I am considering having the kids work on smaller pieces of paper and only using color if time permits.
    thanks in advance!

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    1. I can't remember how long it took but it was definitely multiple class periods. You could create a worksheet so that the kids don't have to cut and glue the hands onto white paper that would save a step and make the picture smaller. It depends how independent the kids are as to if it's enough time or not!

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  4. Thank you so much for this wonderful idea! I am a parent volunteer for an art program called TicToc and this is a perfect project for the class. Thanks again!

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  5. Could you please share the document? Thanks Sandra

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    1. All I did was print the Mona Lisa. Then I cut out her head and the arms. I glued them on a white paper and photocopied it. Sorry my original isn't in electronic form. I do believe I noticed on Pinterest that Teachers' Pay Teachers' has a digital file you can buy??

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