Geisler Art Room: Fall Fun

Friday, November 16, 2012

Fall Fun - 6th Grade

6th grade students started this project off by reading the following poems. Students were asked to sit quietly with their eyes closed and think about what images did the poem bring to their thoughts. They then quietly wrote down 10 images that came to mind, we then discussed them as a class, there was no wrong answer however some students suddenly were talking about things like Chucky and Twilight which led to vampires and Taylor Lautner. These weren't necessarily wrong answers but definitely out in left field. As a class we brought the discussion back to the poems and how could we create a picture that represented them.

HALLOWEEN by Richard Anderson

A gentle breeze rustling the dry cornstalks.
A sound is heard, a goblin walks.
A harvest moon suffers a black cat's cry.
Oh' do the witches fly!
Bonfire catches a pumpkins gleam.
Rejoice, it's Halloween!

THEME IN YELLOW by Carl Sandburg

I SPOT the hills
With yellow balls in autumn.
I light the prairie cornfields
Orange and tawny gold clusters
And I am called pumpkins.
On the last of October
When dusk is fallen
Children join hands
And circle round me
Singing ghost songs
And love to the harvest moon;
I am a jack-o'-lantern
With terrible teeth
And the children know
I am fooling.

Students began the art portion of the project by sketching out a design and then drawing that design on a piece of black paper in pencil. Students then traced their pencil lines in white glue as carefully as possible. After the glue lines dried they colored in all of our spaces with chalk making sure to focus on value and blending. As part of this project the students were learning how to use chalks but also how to blend colors to make interesting shadows and highlights. Before turning in the project we sneaked outside and sprayed down the artwork with hairspray to keep the chalk from dusting off. I'm pretty impressed with their work and can't wait to do another one using a poem from Robert Frost.