6th grade activist art, Keith Haring style

This year my sixth graders have spent a lot of time creating art that says something.  We started with narrative self portraits and focused on the element of storytelling in artmaking.  Later, they created a surreal scene and then, for this project, looked at the art of Keith Haring and created a piece of artwork based on a social justice issue of their choice.  Their thoughtfulness and creativity amazes me!

Word Crimes

After looking at various types of street art, we took inspiration from street artists who create stickers and posters and make comments about popular culture.  After viewing Wierd Al's "Word Crimes" video my students could certainly relate to seeing and using word crimes on a regular basis.  Some students even used real word crimes they found in their texting history.  We used the idea of "word crimes" as our message and each student created four 2.5"x2.5" magnets which will be placed in a magnetic surface in our school.  I love the way this project makes such a real life connection.

Deconstructed Books (student work)

My students were tasked with the challenge of deconstructing a book for this assignment.  After altering every page in some way, they were told to take their sculptural form and elaborate on the project by adding an additional element.  Students found many sources of inspiration and created very beautiful art pieces.  I am so proud of them!

Life's a Deal

I borrowed this wonderful lesson from Olivia Gude's Spiral Curriculum.  We started with a discussion about how much of our life is determined by chance and how much is determined by choice.  The students collaged from magazines and then passed cards after a period of time.  After two days of collaging, I laid out the cards and drew names for students to choose their backgrounds.  I then dealt the playing cards and asked students to incorporate the suit and number into their designs.  The students drew on their cards with oil pastels and blended them with baby oil.  They turned out really cool!

8th Grade Masks

The ultimate goal of this project was for my students to visually represent who they are on the inside as they design and create their masks.  It's a very challenging task, and I encouraged my students to have conversations their closest friends and family to help them think through that version of themselves they only reveal to a select few.  They did an amazing job!