Stone Soup: An Old School Feast

Just in time for the 2 and a half days of school before Thanksgiving...here's a lesson that adds the nuanced magic of a Mort Schindel's Weston Wood's production and collage art lesson about the joy of sharing a meal with family and friends, new and old.

If you don't know about Weston Woods productions & you adore vintage children's picture books as I do, look them up.  Here's a good place to start. I had the great fortune many years ago, of working for and learning from Mort who lives the next town over from me. This is a man who truly, truly understands, appreciates and reveres the essence of a great picture book. This reverence & insight allowed him to produce an amazing catalogue of animated picture books, working with some very talented animators and artists.

Anyway, back to the classic folktale retold by Marcia Brown, Stone Soup, which you can watch here. After years and years of teaching with this book, it never loses it charm and the kids are riveted. This is amazing to me since it seriously only has like two colors in the illustrations plus white and black. See? But good story-telling & illustration doesn't need bells & whistles to capture the imaginations of children.

The Weston Woods animated version is "old school"no major FX, no CGI. Not one kid budges though out, though. There is a special quality to the narrator's voice that makes the ingredients that the villagers add to The Stone Soup sound so delicious. My kids are always so hungry and excited to create their paper sculpture feast after watching.

We discuss how the soldiers "tricked" the villagers into sharing their food, but in the end everyone benefitted. Yay! Then we chat about our own families and the ways we all celebrate Thanksgiving. My school is a melting pot of many cultures, so my students like to share about the foods that come from what they refer to as "my country".

Like maybe enchiladas?

or "dirty rice"?

Even without a holiday connection, this lesson invites students in grades K-5 to transform flat paper into 3 dimensions, creating delicious sculptural objects of art, while engaging the fine motor skills of gluing, cutting folding and curling paper. And we all know by now that children use higher order thinking skills in fine arts class, as well. Bon Appetit!

1st Graders Connect the Dots and Come Full Circle

All kids love (and need) to make their mark. In 1st grade we read the book The Dot by Peter Reynolds. A simple story...but it illustrates so perfectly important things I always hope to achieve with my kids in the Art Studio. Encouragement, creativity, acknowledgment, self-motivation and reflection, ingenuity...all these ideas can be drawn from The Dot.

The dot is such a simple thing, but it means a lot. And it has inspired many artists. I highlight one artist, Wassily Kandinsky's work because he is so accessible to kids. His work is playful, whimsical and easy to take in.

Starting small and working our way out...we use water soluble oil pastels. They go on slippery and smooth.

                                Inspiration comes from many sources! Why not fingernails?

                    When we paint with pastels we learn to be careful of "unintentional smudgery".

                                           Dipping and drawing and dipping and drawing....

                                     Once we start there's plenty of room for Dot Innovation...

                                                                 and Dot Variation...

                                                    Now...make your mark...get set... GO!
http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/wassily_kandinsky_captured_in_the_act_of_creation_1926.html

A Rainbow Connection

Why are there so many songs about rainbows... the Frog once asked. Well, maybe because they're the AWESOME?

My Kindergarteners seem to think so judging from their enthusiasm and the joy their paintings show.

But I am getting ahead of myself here. So, kindergarten studies rainbows as a Science unit. So I did my art scaffolding routine, natch. I mean, how can I not?

I really love the book A Rainbow of My Own by Don Freeman. It just creates this "anything can happen" atmosphere that right off the bat draws kids in and allows them to start imagining their own rainbow, so we read it together. Natch.

Then, because I am big fan of sign language and music, I teach the kids I Can Sing a Rainbow. It lists colors of the rainbow, well actually not the actual colors of an actual rainbow because then the song would have to include indigo and violet and blue is easier to rhyme, I guess. Plus, they learn the real ROYGBIV colors in science. Artistic license, folks! But I do mention ROYGBIV to them just to clarify. But mostly they just want to paint a rainbow of their very own.

So now let's see what the K's came up with rainbow-wise:

First, we thought talked about what happened in the book. Then we put ourselves into the story. And drew. 

And drew some more. With pencil first then crayon. Some kids wanted a friend or sibling in their story picture. It's good to share a rainbow

Now we can paint!

And paint. Of course we use watercolors because they are translucent. So are rainbows!

Watercolors are so perfect for K's. They can work at their own pace mastering the technique and they always looks bright and beautiful.

Told ya.

The end of the rainbow. Or just the beginning?

Speaking of endings and beginnings...indulge me in a little advocacy and maybe even some outrage? (outrage is good sometimes, if it's directed and action-based.)

Firstly, President Obama. this little (and I mean little) Turnaround Arts Initiative you, err...initiated...seems a bit of a lame attempt at acknowledging the true importance the arts play in all of our children's education. Not just the lucky recipients of 8 schools. EIGHT? How did you come up with that number? Funny, the arts plays a large, critical role in your own daughter's school...I bet you knew that when you enrolled them. Just thought I'd throw that out there. If I was allowed a place at your cozy roundtable of "ed reformers" I would show you and Arne Duncan all the beautiful art my kids do with me and how it allows them to experience joy, creativity, develop and refine a personal aesthetic, fine motor skills and use higher-order thinking. But I wasn't invited to the table.

Now...so we don't leave on a non-magical, non-rainbow-colored note: The Frog wants to remind you to watch this: