Rotational Symmetry Weaving

Third graders love this project! This is one that I will certainly do for a number of years! This idea has been floating around the internet for years and I finally tried it last year! We talk about the difference between bilateral and rotational symmetry.

The first day and we paint our plates... 

Next comes the weaving...

 

Learning Goals: I can...
- Tell the difference between rotational and bilateral symmetry
- Use rotational symmetry
- Weave
- Tie overhand knots

Here is an art teacher tip...

Place yarn in ziplock bags with the tail sticking out and tell kids to treat the bag like a yo-yo... gently tugging at the tail (which is the only thing sticking out of the bag). Let the bag gently bob in the air as the string gradually comes out of the bag. I stapled the ziplock closed on either side of the string to keep it from falling back in the bag. Soon I will try out using the heavy duty ziplocks with a zipper... that might work better than staples which come out over time!

If you want to prep cutting a bunch of colors at once you can do this!

O'Keeffe Skulls

Fifth grade students study Georgia O'Keeffe each year.  She became a famous American artist during a time when only men were supposed to be artists. She is known for her large flower paintings and paintings of skulls.  She regularly zoomed in on her subjects which often made her artwork look abstract. Here are some examples of her artwork:

We began this project by drawing a skull and talking about how to use value and a shading technique to create the illusion of form (3D).  After making our skulls look 3D we created a special painting for weaving.  This was an abstract non-objective painting.  We talked about the difference between realistic (like a photograph) abstract (less like a photograph) and non-objective art (only lines, shapes and colors, no objects).  We created these abstract non-objective paintings to use later for weaving:

Next we talked about Navajo Native American artwork since O'Keeffe would have been exposed to it when she lived out west.  One of the art forms that the Navajo are known for is weaving.  We used our abstract paintings to create weavings.

We used the weavings as the background for our O'Keeffe skulls!

Learning Goals: I can...

- Tell about Georgia O'Keeffe

- Tell about Navajo artwork

- Create abstract non-objective art

- Create the illusion of form using a shading technique

- Demonstrate the use of pattern by weaving