Aboriginal Art continued

Class today went well – we started out with journaling again, students are really starting to fall into synch with that, been doing it for about four weeks now. Trick is to keep them on that cycle and engaged without having them get bored. I like giving them to freedom to do whatever they want and think they need it, but I also try to keep a few prompts/inspirations handy just in case. 1st graders did their usual mix of interesting stuff – some just scribbled and colored, others really got focused in and made some interesting stuff – Tabitha in particular today made a really cool desert type of landscape, and Maritza did an interesting abstract design. Monica, one of our third graders, wrote about having a bad day – feeling lonely, getting pinched by someone. I like to think that the time helps them, really work to structure it so it doesn’t feel like a lesson or activity, just something for them. I think getting their work compiled into actual books will help a lot – they can go over old work, get a sense that it’s their own personal sketchbook/journal.

Continued with the Aboriginal art work today. Reviewed key points from last week – use of symbolism, style of painting with dots, stories. They are retaining the info really well, seem to click and ‘get it’. They really liked doing the dot style painting – Sumner had a good idea and went out before class and bought Q-tips and we had them paint with those instead of paintbrushes – cut out the urge to paint in a more traditional style, and I think they liked the novelty of doing something different.

Excited about shaping up this Indigenous Art theme I’ve been teaching into an actual curriculum – students have been good about being the guinea pigs of sorts for it!