Monochromatic Junk Collages

This week we really wanted students to think more critically about their art making.  We noticed from previous weeks that students were simply doing projects just to do them and were quickly throwing things together.  In order for this to change we really had to think about ways in which we could get them to interact with the materials they were using in a purposeful way, which luckily turned out to be a great improvement. 

Our main project this week was to create monochromatic junk collages.  The goal was for each student to create an individual collage with a single color and to study their objects and meaningfully place them onto the canvas before they glued them down.  To help them understand that they should be thinking about their art making we decided to play a game with them before we even introduced the lesson for the day.  In preparation for the game, Jen and I put together individual paper bags for each student that included up to 20 single color junk objects inside and 1 object with a color that did not match the other.  Students sat in a circle as we passed out bags and a small tray for each one to pour their objects out into.  We told the students to observe the objects from their bag and tell us what they noticed about them.  Student responses were exactly what we wanted to hear which was that one object was a different color than the others.  As the students looked around at each other’s objects they noticed that each person had an object that did not fit.  We then asked them what they thought they should do with the object that did not match their color and their responses were dead on.  They said they should trade with each other to get the right color object.  In order for this to work out it took a little bit of planning on our part to make sure that each student was able to trade and receive an object that matched their color but it all seemed to work out really well in the end.

Students just dumped their bag of objects out and are observing what was inside

Students notice there is one object out of place

Given that the bags were handed out randomly, we knew that some students would get a color they were not pleased with.  Since the purpose of the game was not really about what color each student received but rather carefully observing their objects, we allowed them to trade colors with another student or come up to the sorted color bins and chose a new color or different objects after the game.  I noticed that students who did choose to trade their color or pick new objects were really sorting through what was in the bins to pick out the objects that they really liked.  This was the outcome we were hoping for instead of the students all rushing up at once, grabbing things quickly and not taking the time to think about what they were doing.

Nicole is smiling!!!! (she never smiles)

Olivia gluing her composition

Almost every student laid out their composition before gluing which showed they were really learning something. With our help, students used hot glue guns and multiple other glues to place their objects onto the canvas.  The end results were beautiful and proved for a very successful lesson.  They not only learned about taking their time and creating meaning through their work but they also learned about the term monochromatic.  A few students were so into making the project that they asked if they could do another one, which was very exciting as a teacher to hear.

When students were finished they were allowed to go work at the other centers in the room.  This week the centers consisted of trash can painting, straw light construction, drawing, and we added a monochromatic bottle cap tower building station that seemed to be a big hit.  A lot of students completed both the main activity and the bottle cap activity and ended up with some very nice work for the day.  Near end of class Kris sat down on the floor and laid a piece of black cloth down and encouraged students to come help her make a multi color collage which did engage interest in multiple students.  We may do something like this next week as a center so students can make a larger class collage as well.

Leo working on his bottle cap tower

Class Collage

With a constant struggle between process and product, this week we had a make a decision on what was slightly more important.  We know that through class discussion and talking with the students one on one that they completely understand the idea of creating art from junk and talking about it week to week really reinforces this concept.  However, the quality of work that the students were starting to make was something we felt could be improved.  Through the process of the game and the careful observation of their objects, students created work this week that we knew they were all capable of doing.  It was a learning process for us to be able to finally help students understand that art can be meaningful and usually does take more than 5 minutes to complete, however the trial and error was worth it to finally see results we had been hoping for all along.

Beautiful Masterpieces!!

Since there was such great success this week with the way we structured the class, we would like to continue this idea of critical thinking and finding meaning in their art making for next week’s class.  At this point we have not yet decided on the lesson for next week but as the last Saturday school class of the semester we would really like it to end of a good note.  In order to make sure this happens Jen and I really need to re-evaluate all our successes and failures through our past 7 weeks of teaching and narrow down what we know works for sure and what we know will not.  Even if things do not turn out the way we planned, we are pleased to have the chance to experiment with our ideas in a relaxed setting.