Integrated Arts?

The Integrated Arts is a model designed to offer support, extension, and supplementary experiences in content areas through interdisciplinary arts activities. The Common Core Standards' emphasis on developing depth and rigor in thought and the ability to communicate relevant information with increasing skill provides the necessary impetus for this model. Content will be viewed through many lenses, allowing the entirety of relevant ideas to be processed and applied broadly and with added depth. Work with visual arts, music, drama, literature, writing, technology, and design will be incorporated and collaboration with classroom teachers will be ongoing. As Yeats wrote, "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire". The Integrated Arts is an opportunity to light a very purposeful, very directed fire.

Friday, January 9, 2015

Dream Machines: linking art, science, and character education





Our third-grade students spend a deal of time working with our science teacher, Mrs. Minarik, on the idea of forces and their applications on simple machines such as levers, gears, pulleys, and screws. As an extension, we in art class are creating "Dream Machines" that take non-tangible qualities such as hope, laughter, trustworthiness, and determination and turn them into a desired result such as success or friendship. 

The machines are inspired by the cartoon work of the famous Rube Goldberg. his work is iconic in the clever nonsense it exudes. Our students sketched ideas in their journals and were asked to create their machines out of cut paper and other mediums. The art ideas of spacing, composition, essential shapes, color contrast and compliments, and proportion are actively addressed. In addition, we will be drawing a self-portrait of each student dreaming up their machine in the corner of their paper. This allows us to revisit the wonderful self-portrait work they achieved in second grade. 

I can't wait to see the results of this project!


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