Interpreting the Elements of Art, Music, and Creative Movement

Throughout history, visual art has been a means of communicating feelings, emotion, and other forms of human expression. Often, visual artists are inspired by various forms of music and motion (creative movement) in their environment to help communicate their meaning to the world.  Traditional artists often depicted realistic dancers, musicians, etc. in a setting that told the viewer the type of emotion, music, and movement they were supposed to be representing.  Contemporary artists, on the other hand, broke away from this mold and began to use abstract forms of art by carefully manipulating the elements of art to represent this meaningful communication.

The third and fourth grade students are exploring how the various art forms (visual art, music, and creative movement) communicate meaning. The unit emphasized communication and collaboration in an inquiry-based cooperative learning environment.
    The main goals of this unit included:
1.    Students seeing art, music, and creative movement as a form of communication.
2.    Students reflecting on how they communicate in order to improve their communication skills.
3.    Students understanding the value of communication, self-control, and collaboration in group work.

All students had an opportunity to explore the elements of art on four large poster boards, and discussed the strengths and challenges of doing a collaborative art piece. As individuals, they explored the elements of art (line, color, shape, and texture) as they listened to The Carnival of Animals, by Camille Saint-Saens, and identified the elements of music (pitch, harmony, rhythm, and layered voice instrument or voice). One class had the time to explore how these elements could be connected and communicated through body movements as well. In addition, another class created an inquiry game to explore how art and music can interconnect through the elements. The third and fourth grade students are beginning to realize that the elements of art, music, and creative movement are rarely isolated but work together in harmony to express emotion and communicate meaning.
   
Finally, students used inquiry techniques and letter-writing communication to brainstorm for this grade level project.  The painting is intended as a gift to celebrate Mid-Pacific Institute's "100 Years in Manoa" and as a prop for the Kahalopuna opera. The students brainstormed ideas through respectful communication and self-control, allowing nearly 80 students to work on one large, four-foot canvas. The earlier plans for an abstract painting morphed into a beautiful composition of both abstract and realistic ideas, while utilizing the elements of art and music to convey the feeling of the song What A Wonderful World. The painting also illustrates the group identity of students at Mid-Pacific Elementary while aesthetically addressing the parameters of the Kahalopuna opera theme.

 

Posted at 3:43 PM| Permalink

The Value of Comics in the Classroom - Grades 1 to 5

First-, second-, third-, and fourth-grade students have begun a unit on "sequential narrative drawings," popularly known as comics! At the present moment, students are engaged in the process of creating fictional fantasies of magical heroes, evil robots, menacing monsters, talking cats and dogs, Pokemon, and school supplies that come alive to reveal their unique jokes and one-liners. Some children began with "character development," in which students inventively decided a character's personality, environment, unique abilities, and appearance.

The comic to the right exemplifies how the children followed three basic rules for creating comics. The children were asked to 1) draw characters large so they fill up most of the space in the square, 2) write words neatly and larger than necessary, and 3) press lightly with a pencil so that once the comics are ready to be "inked" it will be easier to erase the drafting lines.

Other students began the unit by looking at photocopies of comics in which the text words were missing from the speech bubbles. The children were asked to interpret the body language, facial characteristics, and expressions of the characters in order to determine what new words would be appropriate in the spaces.

In the comic to the left, one student thought that it would be appropriate to write "Can someone help me?" He found the expression on the Elf character, drawn by James Kochalka, to appear serious and as if he was pulling hard and was unable to get the flower out of the ground. Other students reported that "What a beautiful flower," or "I will give this to my friend," would be appropriate to write into the bubble.

What the children most likely don't recognize yet is that they are developing a variety of skills in the process of creating characters and sequential drawings. Students are engaged in contextual composition, plot, setting, character, and language arts development. Students are, in essence, visually outlining the key moments in a story to depict, planning ahead, and engaging in role-playing situations. As the children continue to develop their skills and read exemplary comic books, I will ask them to begin depicting real life events, struggles, or stories from their own lives. The comics will become personal narratives drawn in large-scale frames.

I plan to engage students in the process of comic creation for an additional four weeks of the semester as I have witnessed the joy it brings to students, the creative power of spontaneous role-playing situations, and the strong incentive it provides to children who may otherwise struggle to develop reading, writing, spelling, and spatial compositioning skills.

Now more than at any other time in history, images are playing a major role in children's ability to understanding the concepts of our culture. The average individual is bombarded with an influx of over 10,000 images to interpret and process daily, and it is my mission as a visual educator to aid children in the process of deconstructing, interpreting, and evaluating the purpose and meaning of imagery in our society.



 

 

Posted at 3:28 PM| Permalink

"Beauty Through the Eyes of Our Children"

The 20th Annual Children's Painting Contest sponsored by MOA Hawaii was held on March 21st and 22nd at Ward Warehouse's Kaka'ako Conference Room. I am very pleased to announce that three first-grade students, Julian Kiyabu, Mari Kwee, and T.J. Johnson entered paintings that were accepted into the Nuuanu-Kalihi-Manoa District Exhibition. Congratulations!! Additionally, Julian Kiyabu's painting was awarded "Best In Show!" His painting of a volcano will be exhibited again at the State of Hawai'i Exhibition from June 7th to June 14th at the Honolulu Academy of Arts Linekona Center with other winners from around the state. Julian's painting will then travel to Japan as part of an international exhibition of children's artwork. Julian will temporarily have to say aloha to his painting as it will not return to Hawai'i until next year.

Congratulations, everyone, and I am so proud to have the creative minds of Mid-Pacific Institute Elementary students be represented by these three, hard-working individuals. Fantastic!

Posted at 8:41 AM| Permalink