I love teaching my students about art and Jesus. My 3rd grader’s projects are inspired by early modern history they are learning about in class. Their history timeline song, to the tune of Pop Goes the Weasel, helps them remember important people, events, and dates, and it’s what I use as a jumping off point for creating the projects. At one point we talk about the American Revolution and Paul Revere’s lantern, which is great for my class because my mascot is a lantern named Lanny! Lanny and I are always looking for kind and helpful acts students do to write on a paper on my door. It goes along with the verse from Matthew 5:16, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.“ and the twinkly lights I have on one part of my wall. I love that glorifying God is our reason for doing good and beautiful things and that I can encourage my students in this.
I start teaching the Principles of Design along with the Elements of Art in this grade. It’s great vocabulary for discussing artwork and for helping know what can go into a beautiful piece of art. Artists like them can use the elements, or “ingredients of an artwork” of line, shape, color, form, value, texture, and space to create the principles, or “spices of an artwork” of movement, pattern, unity, emphasis, rhythm, balance, and contrast. The motions we use to remember them are pretty fun too.
Their first project involves Jamestown. The song goes, “The first English settlement built In America wasn’t heaven. The colony of Jamestown In 1607.” I show my students pictures and paintings of the Jamestown settlement and ask them to notice shapes they see, if it were flat. They come up with circles for the corners, a triangle for the whole thing, and squares for the homes inside the walls. After looking at Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture and window designs, students are asked to create an abstract artwork using the shapes of Jamestown. I always tell them I love seeing what they create because every project is different since God made everyone different with different ideas!
The next stanza is “The Pilgrims sailed to America so Their religion could be free. They founded the Plymouth Colony In 1620.” Flint corn helped keep Pilgrims from starving so I ask students to create a relief sculpture of flint corn. I then have them make a 2D version with watercolor paint. I want to teach them that there are many ways to make art about the same thing. I also want to encourage them to get excited about color! I’m so thankful God has gifted us with so many beautiful colors.
At some point during their time with me, whenever the weather is nice enough, I take them outside to draw. One stanza in their song is “Sacagawea helped Lewis and Clark, From 1804 to ‘05 Explore the Louisiana Purchase. To the Pacific they did arrive.” We become explorers outside and I ask them to find one natural object they can hold and draw it three times, trying to add more details each time. The more they look at it the more they notice. I love that we can notice details of God’s beautiful creation in this way.
Isaac Newton and Jackson Pollock inspire our next project. The stanza goes, “Isaac Newton observed the laws That God our Father has given, Like gravity and the laws of motion In 1687.“ We let gravity create our painting. This is the messiest day in my art class all year, but the kids love it. They team up and each team chooses their colors and order for helping the cup-with-a-hole-in-the-bottom swing like a pendulum. I love that we can make art with science!
The history song continues with the French Revolution, “The French followed Americans, To get rid of king and queen, 1789 to 1799...Yikes! Not the guillotine!” We briefly look at art through fashion and transportation of the time and end with looking at a map of Paris. We notice the roads leading out from the Arc De Triomphe. The students use washi tape and a paper circle (which are later taken off) to create a monochromatic (using tints and shades of one color) painting inspired by the map of Paris. I love how I can point my students to noticing design in all areas, including maps, fashion, and transportation.
For the Industrial Revolution we focus on composition and gears. The song goes, “The late 1700’s brought new Machinery and solutions In Europe and America...The Industrial Revolution.“ Students are given 7 gears and they are asked to come up with a composition that includes all the gears touching and at least one overlapping. This project brings a chance to talk about the many pros and cons of growth and change. I’m so thankful our God never changes like history does.
Students end their time with me by studying artist Frederic Remington, a painter and sculptor of the Old American West. The last stanza is about Texas history, “Texas became a republic, After victory at San Jacinto, Then joined the U.S. as the 28th state In 1845.“ The students again use different media with the same subject matter to create a 2D and 3D version of cactus. I hope that my projects inspire students to notice and appreciate beauty that can be seen in the big, in the tiny details, in what you notice easily, in what takes time to find, in science, in math, and in history.
Lord,
Give these 3rd graders an eagerness for exploring beauty You have created all around them. Give them eyes to see Your majesty and give You glory all their days.
Give me the words to encourage them in their love of learning about everything You have created.
Amen.
*Some pictures are my examples and some are student work
*The bolded sections are the "pop" in the tune of Pop Goes the Weasel