In continuing with my series of explaining how I teach my art students about Jesus, my firsties do art based on history they are learning in their class. Their focus in this grade is ancient history and each grade moves up the timeline until modern times. Sometimes it has been hard to think of a project to fit a specific historical event or person and other times its been rather fun to be inspired by history. Through the years my projects have grown and changed but they still have the core of learning about the elements of art and using the creativity God has given them. HIS-story that the students learn about in each grade has a history timeline song to go with it, to help them remember 12 important people/events during that time period. It's a great way for the students to remember historical facts for years to come.
We start where every story starts, at the beginning. Their timeline song, to the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat says, "In the beginning of time, God said, “Let there be...” Made all creation, Adam and Eve. Give him all praise and glory." God created the heavens and the earth. We are inspired by God's creation and the creative power He gave us as we create a Mondrian type artwork. Mondrian used primary colors (red, yellow, blue) with white and black squares and rectangles surrounded by black lines to create his abstract art. We use black electrical tape for our lines, paint for our colors, with the added bonus of clay mice or snails moving through the piece. We look at the book Mouse Paint to learn about the magic that happens when you mix primary colors to get secondary colors. I love giving the students choices so they get to choose whether they want to make mice or snail creations out of clay. Although, they do learn how to make both because the mice are a great way to learn how to roll balls of clay and the snails are a great way to learn how to make snake shapes out of clay. And when you know how to do both of those things the possibilities of what one can make are endless!
Next, we move to ancient Egypt and the song goes, "Egyptian kings were called Pharaohs. Their tombs were filled with gold. About 1,300 BC. King Tut was a boy Pharaoh." Students create a portrait drawing of King Tut. An AB pattern is used for painting the headdress - gold, blue, gold, blue, gold, blue, etc.
We continue on our study through art of ancient history by creating a boat scene inspired by adventures at sea from Homer's writings. The song goes, "Homer, a poet in Greece, Wrote The Iliad and Odyssey. About 800 BC Stories of gods and war and peace." We start by painting the water and dragging a plastic fork through wet paint for the waves. Once that's dry they cut and curl the paper to make waves crashing around their boats. The boats are done with origami folding held up with a chopstick mast. The sail is an AB pattern of paper strips.
For their study of ancient Greece they create a scratch art, 2-dimensional version of an ancient Greek pot. They use lines and shapes to create patterns on the top and bottom and in the middle they draw something they are interested in. I encourage them to think about what someone would learn about them if they were seeing their pot 1,000 years from now. At the end of this we make a mini pinch pot and draw a pattern around it so students can get a sense of the 3-dimensionality of a real pot.
"Julius Caesar of Rome Crossed the Rubicon for a throne. March 15, 44 BC Was slain on steps of stone." This may well be the hardest lesson I teach, but with encouragment the students don't give up and I'm always so proud of them for trying their best. The students are to draw a profile of themselves on one side of a "gold" coin and their school's emblem on the other side. This is quite hard to do because they are not used to drawing like this. We practice drawing the profile with a silly story that I made up of Julius Ceasar out for a walk where he goes over some hills, falls down, and even has to change direction because he needs a potty break at one point. Thinking of drawing a profile in this way - of looking just at a line and turning the coin as we go, rather than thinking of it like a face, is helpful in getting them to think of it in a different way. For more practice I have them trace the middle of their face, lengthwise, with their finger, to feel where each facial feature starts. I say the eye is like an open triangle with a curved part inside for the eyeball and the ear is a "C" shape in the middle of the head. Students sometimes struggle with making their hair go down to their ear. But I am not afraid of this type of struggle and I am trying to teach my students that struggle can be hard but just wait til the end and see how far you've come! This year one student had a hard time during practice but I remember her beaming face so clearly when, at the end of class, she came up to me and was so proud of how much better her final coin was than her practice. Practice makes better!
Our last project before our big review of the semester is a Van Gogh's Starry Night with a nativity twist. Their timeline song ends with, "Jesus, God’s holy Son, Who taught and loved everyone, About 29 AD. He died for our sins. He has won!!" I guide them through each line, shape, and color that they draw with oil pastels and it's a beautiful thing to see all of their mangers under that star-filled, quiet night.
At bedtime we've been reading through my son's first grade history book and he recently told me that he loves history because some of the same things that happened then, happen now and we can learn from and copy what has happened in the past. He also said he likes to imagine what they did back then. I pray we all learn from the lessons of those who have come before us.
Lord,
Give us wisdom to take what was good from the past and apply it to our lives today. Help us leave what has not been from you in the past.
Help me teach these students well and encourage them to find awe and wonder in what they study and create.
Amen.