Showing posts with label living histories. Show all posts
Showing posts with label living histories. Show all posts
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Journal Time
Journaling is a big part of the Living History curriculum for all of our student groups, regardless of age. We like to use it as a time to promote creativity, meditation, a quiet space for our students to inspire themselves, work on ideas and have a few minutes of totally unstructured, do as you will time.
Below are some photos from recent journal time. Our high school students have been playing with new image making techniques, learning about creating ‘artists books’. On occasion, we’ll bring something in to inspire our elementary students as well - in this case, some fall leaves were all they needed to run wild!
Below are some photos from recent journal time. Our high school students have been playing with new image making techniques, learning about creating ‘artists books’. On occasion, we’ll bring something in to inspire our elementary students as well - in this case, some fall leaves were all they needed to run wild!
Thursday, November 04, 2010
Día de los Muertos
Our students have been working on some really cool Day of the Dead projects this past week. This is one of our favorite themes - a great springboard to teach students about cultures, symbolism, cycles in nature, Mexican and Aztec history, etc.
Students are cutting their own papel picado, and learned about graphic designer Jose Posada and his drawings in Mexico 100 years back that influenced much of the Día de los Muertos imagery we see today.
They are creating their own calveras, putting their own personal cultural spins on them. So far, we’ve seen a few with ipods, one with a helmet to represent skateboarding, a student who is into drawing who gave his pencils for teeth, another student of Japanese heritage gave his the rice hat that is grandfather wears.
Watch for more photos as the students begin to complete their projects!
Students are cutting their own papel picado, and learned about graphic designer Jose Posada and his drawings in Mexico 100 years back that influenced much of the Día de los Muertos imagery we see today.
They are creating their own calveras, putting their own personal cultural spins on them. So far, we’ve seen a few with ipods, one with a helmet to represent skateboarding, a student who is into drawing who gave his pencils for teeth, another student of Japanese heritage gave his the rice hat that is grandfather wears.
Watch for more photos as the students begin to complete their projects!
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Lots of exciting work!
Living Histories is back in action and back to school!
We are working with several Green Dot charter high schools in a partnership with Champions; we are currently at Animo South LA, Animo Pat Brown, and Animo Bunche, where teachers Jennifer and Steve are working with some amazing students doing photography.
The students this session are focused on learning core ideas in composition, looking at the work of other photographers, developing their own portfolios, and doing conceptual projects around their own identity and role in their community. They also keep journals and practice various printmaking and painting techniques to give them creative ideas; a bit focus on the class is the creative process itself.
We are so excited to see the work they are producing!
student project at animo bunche
A show is in the works for December - more info soon - but in the meantime, check out what they are doing on their blogs:
http://www.animophotography.blogspot.com/
http://patbrownphoto.blogspot.com/
We also just started up at New LA Charter, a middle school. Steve is teaching a "DIY Graphic Design" class to students there. Right now, they are making some very cool Día de los Muertos posters, having learned about Mexican graphic designer Jose Posada. They'll soon be embarking on some cool projects, including creating logos, a website, a magazine, designing their own business, and picking a community project to apply their new design skills too. They are a great group of students, and we are excited to be working with them!
Miss Tiffany is back at Hamilton Elementary in Pasadena, as part of our on going partnership with the Pasadena LEARNs program. She is teaching classes to some K-2nd graders; right now, the students are focused on learning about concepts connected to community, culture and identity (and they too are doing some Día de los Muertos projects as part of their culture explorations) and will soon be engaged in learning about water issues around the globe, engaging in art and writing projects connected to such, and then taking part in a group service project to bring a needing community clean water. We are very excited to get them started on this!
We also promise to have more regular updates - needless to say, it's been a busy 6 or 7 weeks starting this school year up, but we can't want to share more of what our students create!
-Brande
We are working with several Green Dot charter high schools in a partnership with Champions; we are currently at Animo South LA, Animo Pat Brown, and Animo Bunche, where teachers Jennifer and Steve are working with some amazing students doing photography.
The students this session are focused on learning core ideas in composition, looking at the work of other photographers, developing their own portfolios, and doing conceptual projects around their own identity and role in their community. They also keep journals and practice various printmaking and painting techniques to give them creative ideas; a bit focus on the class is the creative process itself.
We are so excited to see the work they are producing!
student project at animo bunche
A show is in the works for December - more info soon - but in the meantime, check out what they are doing on their blogs:
http://www.animophotography.blogspot.com/
http://patbrownphoto.blogspot.com/
We also just started up at New LA Charter, a middle school. Steve is teaching a "DIY Graphic Design" class to students there. Right now, they are making some very cool Día de los Muertos posters, having learned about Mexican graphic designer Jose Posada. They'll soon be embarking on some cool projects, including creating logos, a website, a magazine, designing their own business, and picking a community project to apply their new design skills too. They are a great group of students, and we are excited to be working with them!
Miss Tiffany is back at Hamilton Elementary in Pasadena, as part of our on going partnership with the Pasadena LEARNs program. She is teaching classes to some K-2nd graders; right now, the students are focused on learning about concepts connected to community, culture and identity (and they too are doing some Día de los Muertos projects as part of their culture explorations) and will soon be engaged in learning about water issues around the globe, engaging in art and writing projects connected to such, and then taking part in a group service project to bring a needing community clean water. We are very excited to get them started on this!
We also promise to have more regular updates - needless to say, it's been a busy 6 or 7 weeks starting this school year up, but we can't want to share more of what our students create!
-Brande
Monday, February 08, 2010
Abstract designs
We've been working on abstract designs inspired by Alexander Calder. We looked at Calder's work while making our ecosystem mobiles last month, and now we are looking at his paintings. This is a great introduction for drawing and color theory; students are creating abstract designs inspired by shapes found in nature (building on what we've been doing with our gardens and ecosystem lessons), then painting them in primary colors. They loooove the project!
Monday, October 19, 2009
Picasso portraits
Last week students were hard at work on their self portrait projects. This is one of my very favorite activities - students love getting to work with their own image, and it’s a great lesson to emphasize the ongoing theme of identity and self that we have been working with the last few weeks. We lead into the lesson by discussing notions of abstract art, how colors and shapes can convey a feeling, and how we can use those tools to express how we feel about ourselves. We then look at some of Picasso’s abstract work, thinking about how he stylistic choices conveyed feelings and ideas. From there, students dive in on their own images, creating a version of themselves as they see fit.
Below are some examples from 1st graders a Hamilton:
Below are some examples from 1st graders a Hamilton:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
