6th Grade: Tessellations

Tessellations

The word ‘terrera’ in Latin means a small stone cube. They were used to make up ‘tesellata’ the mosaic pictures forming floors and tiling’s in Roman Buildings.

Tessellations are designs which can fill the page, without gaps or over-lapping; to form a pattern that completely fills a space. It’s the simplest form of jigsaw puzzle: all the pieces look alike.

Your tessellation must be based on a shape that will tessellate.

Students also completed a one page paper discussing M.C. Escher, Tessellations and talking about their project and how they made their project.

Students presented the projects to their peers and projects were hung in the hallways for 3 weeks.

 

7th Grade: History Books

Essential Question: How can you create an interesting book about a time period in History using the Elements and Principles of Design?

History Books

When visiting the Library, ever notice how many different types of books there are? Reading books are usually bigger and thinner, while novels are smaller and thicker. Most of them are made by binding one end and adhering the pages to the binder.

This is not the only way to bind books though.

Throughout history, different cultures have made variations of books in many different ways throughout the ages.

Slat books were the first kind of books, made in China. They were made of strips of bamboo that were held together by cord. This is were the Chinese custom of writing from top to bottom began. The books were either rolled up for storage, or folded like an accordion.

Papyrus scrolls in Egypt were made from papyrus which is made from the papyrus plant that grows in the Nile River. The stems are cut and sliced into thin strips which are laid on top of each other in two layers- one horizontal and one vertical. The paper is then pressed together so the paper is bound together.

Scrolls were also used as books in ancient Greece and Rome, but there were no pictures like the ancient Egyptians used. They were just writings on scrolled paper.

History Books

The first part of this assignment will be to research a unique book- like an accordion book, and do a quick presentation on the book, including the background on where the book was made and why it was made. Include interesting facts on how the book was made as well.

A.    Choose a period in history to learn about and take notes on.

Some examples are:

            Ancient Egypt              Ancient China             Medieval Europe

            Ancient Rome              Ancient Greece            Baroque                                                                      Prehistoric Times   Mayan                        

B.     Break that period in history down in to 5 major events or characteristics that happened during that time period and their significance.

***MAKE SURE YOU USE MLA FORMAT TO SITE YOUR SOURCES***

-Need at least 2 book references, and 3 internet sources.

Example: Ancient Egypt

1.   Pyramids Built

2.   Tomb Robbers

3.   Battle

4.   Merchants

5.   Fall of Ancient Egypt

C.     Do a rough draft of how you will illustrate and lay out the books. This should be done on drawing paper.

a.      Make notes on the rough drafts, including citing your sources. Print out pictures and tape or glue them to the rough drafts.

D.    Choose a book layout from the “Book Layout Packet” to create your book.

a.       You may practice the layouts on drawing paper first, then use bigger paper to create the books.

E.     Start illustrating and putting your books together. You may not use pictures printed from internet or removed from books/newspapers/periodicals (magazines) in your books- everything is to be hand-drawn (this is ART CLASS J).

a.      USE Stick Glue, MARKERS AND COLORED PENCILS

                                                              i.      Crayons and pastels will smear.

b.      Use the Elements and Principles of design in your layout.

 

8th Grade: Jazz Instraments

Jazz Paintings

Essential Question: How does music influence Visual Arts?

 

            The Jazz Age (also known as the Golden age or the Roaring Twenties) was a feature of the 1920’s when Jazz music and dance became popular. In the 1920’s- everyone seemed to have money to spend.

The young set themselves free especially, the young women. They shocked the older generation with their new hair style (a short bob) and the clothes that they wore were often much shorter than had been seen and tended to expose their legs and knees. The wearing of what were considered skimpy beach wear in public could get the Flappers, as they were known, arrested for indecent exposure. They wore silk stockings rolled just above the knee and they got their hair cut at male barbers. The President of Florida University said the low cut gowns and short skirts "are born of the devil they are carrying the present generation to destruction".

Aaron Douglas was an African American painter from Topeka, Kansas. Douglas was heavily influenced by the African culture he painted for. His natural talent plus his newly acquired inspiration allowed Douglas to be considered the "Father of African American arts." That title led him to say," Do not call me the Father of African American Arts, for I am just a son of Africa, and paint for what inspires me."

Douglas was an important part of the circle of artists and writers we now call the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the 1920s. The Harlem Renaissance helped lay the foundation for the post-World War II phase of the Civil Rights Movement. Moreover, many black artists who rose to creative maturity afterward were inspired by this literary movement.

VOCAB:

Analagous colors: next to each other on the color wheel. These colors will have a common base color. For instance: blue, blue-violet, and violet. Another example is yellow-green, green, and blue-green.

 

YAW Class: Painting Portraits with Warm and Cool Colors

Sophia working with a Cool Pallet

The students were given the choice to either work on Warm Colors: Red, Yellow, Orange or Cool Colors: Blue, Green and Purple to create their portraits. The goal was to try and get the proportions correct with minimal to no use of black, and toning and tinting the colors to achieve shadows and lighter portions on their paintings.

Laura's self Portrait with Cool Colors

The students worked the entire class session on their portraits and we also allowed the students to take some creative liberties by adding in personal objects, or characteristics if they wanted.

For some students the real challenge was looking past the limited pallet and working with the colors provided to create different areas of the face.

Courtney working with a Warm Pallet

YAW Class: Painting Portraitures using Complimentary Colors

This week the students explored Self Portraits using a limited color pallet using only complimentary colors and white. The students learned how to draw portraits using the appropriate proportions and painted using complimentary colors: Yellow and Purple; Green and Red; Blue and Orange.

We discussed how to use complimentary colors to create shadows, as black paint was not available to the students this week. We also discussed how to effectively use the limited pallet to create self portraits and a sense of three-dimensional objects.

Student working with Orange and Blue on Self Portrait Painting

YAW Class: Learning to Paint Portraits

This week the 7th and 8th graders learned to paint portraits using one primary color: red, blue or yellow, along with black and white paint.

By breaking down the different parts of the face: mouth, nose, ears, eyes and lips, we were able to teach the differences between the parts of the face and identify potential challenges for the students.

The students did an excellent job in using black and white to create monochromatic portraits!!

YAW Class: Painting and Drawing Class

This week in the painting and drawing class we introduced pastels as a new medium to use in addition to the charcoal and conte.

We continued to work on still lives, focusing on the composition of the artwork. We accentuated the drawing by adding the primary colors: red, blue and yellow pastels. When adding the pastels, the students made strides to utilize different types of lines to give the artwork a sense of motion and three dimensionality.

The students were really excited at the addition of the new material. They are really understanding how important composition is, and how lines assist in adding to their drawings!!!

Sophias' Still Life (notice how she switched the jug and vase for  'composition')

YAW Class: Composition

This week, Amanda and I taught the 7th and 8th grade Drawing and Painting class at the Moore Young Artist Workshop. We discussed Composition, Emphasis and Focal Point. We looked at some examples of artists work that included different types of Emphasis and different Focal Points. During our Motivation, we asked students to point out the focal point, and talk about which type of emphasis that they thought was used in each painting. We discovered that multiple Focal Points were used in most of the paintings, as well as multiple emphasis could be discussed about each painting.

The students then drew from still lives, using value, composition and lines to guide the focal point and emphasize the object that was of most interest to them. The students worked in different mediums: graphite pencils, charcoal and conte.

At the end of the lesson, Amanda and I had a 20 minute critique to discuss all the drawings. We asked the students to talk about their work, where they saw the focal point, and which emphasis best fit their drawings. It was interesting to find what the artist saw as the focal point, and what the other students saw as the focal point. Again, we were able to match multiple emphasis on the different works of art.

Critique discussing Composition, Emphasis and Focal Point 

If you would like to include this lesson plan in your curriculum, visit the Middle School Lesson Plans tab at the top of the page.