-Introduction: Art Explorers-
In the Art Time Travelers Unit, Kindergartners will use various mediums to explore historic and personal art through the scope of time. Students will learn how to be art explorers and what that means when creating art. The unit will promote an exploratory mindset that will be accomplished through role play, material exploration, and art expeditions. Art explorers will create artwork that deals with their present self, the past, and what they envision for the future. Each lesson will have a focus on a time period that will allow for material exploration and play. At this age play is an integral part of how students interact with and learn from the world around them. Allowing for students to use art during play connects the importance of art in our lives and how it can promote critical thoughts about our story.
Lesson 1. Class 1: How to be an Art Explorer
Art explorers will be introduced to the concept of time travel by asking them what they know about explorers. They will learn what is expected of them as explorers; ask questions, make predictions, record and plan information, and work together to accomplish an expedition. Students will be given their sketchbooks and will draw themselves on the cover as explorers. Before drawing the teachers will demonstrate how they use their sketchbooks to explore ideas and materials in their art. By connecting art making, research and planning students will see the importance record keeping and exploration in art. Art explorers will also draw designs on their explorer hats which will allow them to play explorer during expeditions.
Lesson 2. Classes 2,3, and 4: Exploring the Past
Art explorers will begin analyzing images of the Lascaux caves and make predictions about the content of the cave paintings and their meaning. This will be an introduction into the past by viewing these cave paintings as artifacts that give us information about peoples and cultures of the past. Art explorers will create cave drawings or paintings which depict an event or story from their lives. The drawings and paintings will then be hung in the hall way (“cave”) and Art Explorers will explore the cave by recording their observations and predictions in their sketchbook. Next, Art Explorers will describe what an artifact is, what it means, and how that meaning changes over time. They will begin to look at contemporary objects we use today and what people in the future will think of these objects. What do these objects tell about their users? Students will use their sketchbook to plan an artifact that represents them. It may be an object or tool that students use often or a depiction of a favorite person or pet. After the planning period art explorers will experiment with clay on their own (without instruction) to create a base of knowledge with the material. Art explorers will then receive proper hand-building techniques and see how their pieces have changed and improved. While learning these techniques students will also begin to plan how they will paint their pieces and how color can change the way it is viewed. After painting their clay artifacts the art explorers will participate in an archeological dig in which they unearth the artifacts of other explorers and make interpretations about what these artifacts mean about their maker. Through this activity the art explorers transitioned their thinking into the future context, pretending to be archaeologists in the distant future finding and analyzing artifacts that communicate meaning about their maker.
Lesson 3. Class 5: The Future is Now
Next the Art Explorers will begin working within the context of the future. They will look at baby photos of the art teachers and compare them to what the teachers look like now, in order to understand how the past leads into the future. The art explorers will then began thinking about what they would be like in the future, what will they look like? What will their interests be? Will they have a job? What kind of job would they want? They will get to explore a box full of costumes and pick one that represents what they view their future selves as. Next they will put the costumes away and learn about the Monoprint process, which includes drawing or painting of their self portraits in the future, on clear plastic and then wetting a piece of paper and printing the image onto the paper. After the demo, Art Explorers will create their futuristic self portraits using the monoprint process.
Lesson 4. Classes 6,7, and 8: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles with Me
Art explorers will continue to create art about the future by describing vehicles and modes of transportation they use today. They will predict how these will change in the future , and how environment and culture affects the use and design of a vehicle. Students will individually plan their futuristic mode of transportation while experimenting with acrylic on paper. Art explorers will use these plans to collaborate and compromise designs for a large scale group sculpture/installation. They will analyze their prior knowledge on group work and the characteristics of a good collaborator. This will set base rules for how students should interact while collaborating on a piece of art. Groups will begin materials exploration of sculpture materials like cardboard, hot glue, construction paper, and fabric. Art explorers will use their various plans to create a new vehicle that has various components. They will use cardboard boxes as the main body, but will add components through cardboard, paper, fabric, and other building materials. Art explorers will work together and make group decisions to any changes in the plans. Once the sculpture is complete each group must create a skit that will demonstrate the various components of their “vehicle”. Each group member must have a role in the skit. Students will use a self assessment as a way to show what they contributed to the group.
Lesson 5. Classes 9 and 10: The Here and Now
In this final lesson, art explorers created versions of self-portraits depicting themselves in the present, with their friends and/or families. The pieces were created using a tissue paper collage technique to create unique backgrounds, representing their favorite colors. On top students collaged a self-portrait of themselves, friends, and/or family drawn in marker or colored pencil. Afterwards, students created a class banner full of their individual drawings, representing their styles as Art Explorers.
-Prepared Graduate Competencies-
The PGC's addressed in this unit are concepts which time, exploration, self, and story in relation to creating unique works of art and exploring new materials and ideas. Our hope with this unit was that students would leave the classroom with new ways of analyzing and understnading the world around them and how art interacts with and shapes this world. Throughout the course of this unit students learned important skils such as teamwork and collaboration, expressing their ideas through planning and envisioning their artwork, working with both two-dimensional and three-dimensional materials, and expressing themselves through making art.
- Analyze, interpret, and make meaning of art and design critically using oral and written discourse
- Recognize, articulate, and debate that the visual arts are a means for expression
- Analyze, interpret, and make meaning of art and design critically using oral and written discourse
- Recognize, articulate, and implement critical thinking in the visual arts by synthesizing, evaluating, and analyzing visual information
- Recognize, demonstrate, and debate the place of art and design in history and culture
- Develop and build appropriate mastery in art-making skills using traditional and new technologies and an understanding of the characteristics and expressive features of art and design
- Recognize, interpret, and validate that the creative process builds on the development of ideas through a process of inquiry, discovery, and research
- Transfer the value of visual arts to lifelong learning and the human experience
- Explain, compare and justify that the visual arts are connected to other disciplines, the other art forms, social activities, mass media, and careers in art and non-art related arenas
