Painting and Planting Ice Balls

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It's winter here, though just barely above freezing, and I was thinking of ways we could be making art outdoors in a fun and interesting way. Unfortunately, were hampered by the lack of snow and ice. Fortunately, however, I was able to talk my way into using the school cafeteria's giant walk-in freezer to make some large balls of ice (frozen water balloons).

We made about 60 ice balls and brought groups of students out to paint them with watercolors. It was a really engaging activity and the students enjoyed the thrill of painting on a strange substance. We then "planted" the ice balls around the large tree. It was quite beautiful with the ice hitting the ice and highlighting the colors. The balls lasted for about a day before they melted away.

For the next round, I think we will experiment with placing objects in the ice, or doing this at a time of year when the temperature stays below zero for longer.


Notan Creatures

The current UOI for Grade 4s is looking at the impact of human actions on animals and their environment.

We started off by doing a short lesson to learn the cut-and-paste technique for making notan designs. The results were quite striking and got us excited about the next step:

Next, we created a large-scale design based on the animal the students had been researching. In their design, they had to incorporate four aspects: the animal, its environment, threats it faces, and future (imaginary) adaptations to that environment. Students created some interesting compositions. For many, this was the first time they thought about an artwork conveying a message.



Jasper Johns and Our Favourite Number

“Take an object. Do something to it. Do something else to it.”
— Jasper Johns

With the grade 1s and 2s, we often talk about the subjects of artworks and why an artist might choose a particular subject. They're really interested in the backstory behind artists and their artworks. We've been looking at a lot of abstract expressionist artworks lately, and they've really engaged with the opportunity to interpret artworks. However, when it comes to creating their own works, students often gravitate towards depicting scenes or objects. For this painting unit, I wanted us to move away from representational subjects and towards depicting abstract ideas.

0 Through 9, Jasper Johns

0 Through 9, Jasper Johns

Using the quote above as a jumping off point, we looked at his works and talked about how we could use the idea of an every-day object, like a number, as a way to make art. Students then created their own compositions with numbers using watercolors and explored they could create a feeling or emotion with their composition.

Landscape Collage

Utilizing the creative cycle, Grade 8 students investigated one of the Group of Seven Canadian landscape artists and researched a landscape they had visited before. Combining their research with experiments in various collage techniques, students created a reinterpretation of their personal landscape. Finally, students collaborated in small groups to apply integrative thinking strategies to reinterpret their definition of landscape art.

The final phase of the unit saw the grade 8 students collaborate to reinterpret their 2D landscapes as 3D sculptural forms. Students constructed hanging mobiles made of shapes which they had abstracted from their 2D compositions. In constructing the mobiles, students considered how to create a horizon line, foreground, midground, and background in a three-dimensional space and re-examined their definition of landscape art. Their creation was guided by questions such as:

  • What are the criteria for an artwork to be considered a landscape?

  • Does everyone perceive a landscape in the same way?

  • How do we create emphasis and contrast in 3D space?

Student visual responses to these questions are below: