fifth grade photography poems

This looking at art activity comes from one of my art21 peers, Don Ball. Who, by the way, is pretty darn amazing. Here he is talking about his own art work:

What I love about this activity is that it's a collective observation process. The fifth graders (who are doing photography this year) each started with a photograph and wrote 5 words to describe the art. Then they moved on to the next one, wrote another 5 words, and so on, until the entire class contributed observations for each photograph. After each line was written, a piece of paper was moved down over it, so the lines above were hidden. Then the unveiling! Students came back to their original photograph and read all of the observations, chose one word from each line of the five words listed, and used these words to create a short poem. In this way, each poem is a collective observation! 

This was a great way to validate the observations of everyone and the "quiet conversation" process helped to deepen their observation and understanding of the art. 

Sharon Lockhart

THE LUNCHBOX

by Alexis

The box, the carton with color

Dark background

You see Dole

I see hoarder

Made of plastic

Patriotic strutting its red

The peach sticker wanted to stick

Healthy lunch

After the poems were composed, students read their poems aloud in small groups also taking care to listen for the word they had contributed. Here they could make small changes, check for understanding, and discuss their observations. Once the small groups had finished, we moved to the presentation side of the room where I projected their photographs on the big screen as they got to read their poems to everyone. 

This process took the entire hour and not one student complained about not having time to make art. In fact, I had a few students tell me how much fun they were having and everyone was completely absorbed in the process! I definitely plan on using this process again in other grades with different art. 

William Wegman

THE WHIMPERING SOUND

by Ginger

The fortune called

the newly born dog

into the dark.

Evil starts grabbing.

Mom comes saving

in her cool color dress

being as meaningful

as a mother could

be.

Andreas Gursky

COLOR MARKET

by Marcus

sugar filled market,

99 cents, sale, money, ads, cheap!

candy, rolo, bright colors,

people, people, people

sugar filled market

Ansel Adams

MOUNTAIN

by Oliver

strong

high as the

clouds

dark mystical

rays play on the

color shining

the angelic

environment

hidden

Bernd & Hilla Becher

WATER TOWER

by Max W.

The rusty worn down towers

Gridded and bare seek out water

Tall standing construction

Horizontal

Vertical

Diagonal

Dorthea Lange

A SINGLE MOTHER

by Elise

A single mother

With no home

Hiding, dirt everywhere

She wants to work

Waiting for hope

She is filled with sadness

Scared her homeless family

Will die

Great depression

Lewis Hine

CHILD LABOR

by Emma

Child labor is wrong

Forcing innocent children to work

Trying to earn money for shoes, clothes, and food

Curious kids forced into slavery

Feeling empty

Oliver Herring

MAN

by Reza

Splattered man

Project man

Motionless man

Background man

Movement man

Meaning man

Azouris man

Dirty man

Teal man

Chaos man

garden loom

I brought out some scraps of yarn for our garden loom the other day during my recess duty. Usually our garden loom is filled with earthy colored twigs, sticks, long grasses, and garden cuttings from work days but I like the splash of bright color here too!

The garden loom is wonderful Multiple Intelligence tool. It fosters the use interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences, and of course the spatial, naturalist, bodily-kinesthetic, and logical-mathematical intelligences.

If you want to find out more about how to build your own garden loom check out Weaving a Life and The Earth Loom Foundation. Our garden loom started as a hallway conversation "wouldn't it be great if..." and our wonderful NCS parents made it happen!

how does our garden grow?

"Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you." -Frank Lloyd Wright

Our theme in Art this year combines the spatial and naturalist intelligences as we explore Art in Nature. Artists love to create but they also observe. The first grade artists spent time outside sketching and observing many different tree branches and how those branches diverge. Nature is a wonderful source for curiosity and creativity as the first grade artists create and discover!



The artists used their nature sketches to help inspire them to make an imagined treescape silhouette and chose an analogous color scheme to fill in the background using oil pastel. We love the rich color and intensity of these expressionist treescapes!

guest writer for art:21

Art:21 is an amazing PBS series that brings contemporary art to a large audience through books, television, and the internet. Contemporary artists are presented in themes: compassion, humor, power, memory, and play among many others. As an art educator, Art:21 is my favorite place for information and inspiration, so I was very excited to be asked to write on the current topic of Art and Experience for the Art:21 blog! This blog covers contemporary issues in the art world and beyond and is always thought provoking. I feel really honored to be included with the talented writers, curators, artists, and critics from all over the world. Please take a look at the post, Multiple Intelligence: Art and Experience, and feel free to leave a comment!