Wow, the month of February just FLEW by! And boy, oh boy, was it jam packed with FUN! R.V. Daniels went all out with visiting guest assemblies, gifted student performances, several field trips, special morning announcements, and of course ...
... a dedicated ART project!
February is Black History Month, and in the ART room, the students learned about an amazing African American artist named Faith Ringgold. I wanted to choose someone who was still alive so the kids could do a little research that they would actually relate to. Plus Ringgold is not only a visual artist, she also writes and illustrates her own children's books, and we know how Ms. Holloway simply can NOT do an art lesson without a literary connection to the standards!
The new vocabulary words for our "smartest artists" during this project were EMPHASIS, and NARRATIVE (and because we just completed our PATTERN unit, we were very excited to see how this older vocab word is used in Faith Ringgold's work as well).
She has so many beautiful books to choose from, but because this one has a sense of playfulness and magic to it, I chose to read "Tar Beach". In this lovely little tale, a young girl is flying over her city gazing down on roof tops, families, and her very favorite bridge until she finds that she can own it in her mind and spirit.
We discussed how all of Ringgold's paintings tell a story (NARRATIVE), and that there is always one particular area that draws our eyes to the most important part (EMPHASIS). The students also noticed that most of her work is bordered with PATTERNS of quilts. WOW, how cool is she??!?!
I asked the young artists to close their eyes and imagine where they would fly over if it could be absolutely anywhere in the world, and how they would illustrate that in a narrative work of art ...