Fall Glue and Chalk Scenes - 6th Grade

This is by far my favorite assignment. It seems like it is my student's favorite assignment too. Every year when the 6th graders start the assignment my 7th and 8th graders tell me how much they loved this project. I love that. 

For this project we talk about how artists find inspiration from all different places, including poetry and books. I start by reading them 2 poems. 

This year we read: 

PIECES OF AUTUMN by George Elliot

Come said the wind to leaves one day,

Come over to the meadows and we will play,

Put on your dresses of scarlet and gold,

for summer is gone and the days grow cold.

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.

After reading the poems we talked about the images we imagined when we read these poems. We then made a list of the many ideas that we thought about. We also discussed how artists make sketches and plan out their drawings before actually jumping in to creating their designs. Artists call these smaller faster paced sketches thumbnail sketches. Finally, we took our sketches and made our final designs. These were created by first drawing in glue and then adding chalk pastels for color and value.

The learning targets we were looking at in this project were...

Students should be able to complete these things by the end of the project.

- I can pre-plan my project in my sketchbook (MI standard: ART.VA.II.6.7)
- I can use Value and Contrast to enhance my composition and create a sense of dimension at a developing level. (MI standard ART.VA.I.6.3)
- I can use the chalks appropriately at a developing level (MI standard ART.VA.II.6.6)

- I can make connections between art and literature (MI standard ART.VA.V.6.5)

- I can pay attention to the final details of the assignment and reflect on what else needs to be completed (MI standard ART.VA.II.8.5)