Raven

Second graders made these awesome raven collages after learning a bit about the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest.  We started by reading the story "Raven: A Trickster Tale from the Pacific Northwest."

Then we drew a frame with a raven inside it on both sides of a black paper.  We chose the best side, cut it out and glued it to a colorful paper. From there we layered shapes and colors.  Students were encouraged to have a few shapes that had 3 layers of color.  We worked on designing our frames as we worked.

Learning Goals: I can...

- Tell about the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest

- Tell about totem poles

- Explain the story of the Raven

- Create a collage

- Layer paper to create a more detailed design

- Balance color

We also learned about totem poles because they were so important to the Native Americans in the Pacific North West.  We learned that totem poles help shoe stories and record history.

Adobe Chalk Landscapes

Fourth graders created these colorful glue and chalk landscapes.  We learned about the Hopi Native Americans through a PowerPoint and by reading some of this awesome book: "If you lived with the Hopi." 

The current elementary curriculum in our schools seems to focus on Native Americans in the Michigan area so kids usually do not know about some of the other famous tribes!  This was a great chance to get a feel for how other tribes are different. Again, I can't say enough good things about this book!

Chalk is not a medium (material) that we use regularly so this was a project that involved new experiences for many students.  Before we started each day we reviewed my two art rules for good craftsmanship using chalk: 

1. Don't blow the chalk (we avoided a lot of coughing and mess). 

2. No chalk piles (I explain that these are created when students press too hard and that when they happen students should stop immediately and rub the pile into the paper.  This helps prevent colors from falling all over into unwanted places).

We blended using our fingers and erased out with kneadable erasers.  Kneadable erasers were a new thing for most of the kids. I got lots of questions about where these could be bought.  Hobby Lobby is a great place to get an interesting stocking stuffer like this if you are a parent of one of these kids! 

 We also talked about analogous colors (colors that are alongside each other on the color wheel, neighbors) and how well they blend together.

Learning Goals: I can...

- Tell about the Hopi and their Adobe houses

- Pencil lightly

- Draw with glue

- List the 2 chalk rules

- Use chalk to blend colors

- Explain analogous colors