A lot of our Fridays will be filled with school-wide events, assemblies, cultural performances, etc. along with the regularly scheduled library, school-wide walk/run, K/1 time and (starting in November) Zumba. We will also be trying to get some baking in on these days! Whew! However, on the weeks when we have some time for us to work on some other activities, we will be focusing our efforts on studying a few special artists throughout the year.
We chose Andy Goldsworthy as our first artist. As we have been watching for the beautiful signs of fall outside, we thought this was a perfect place to begin. We showed the students this short clip that helps give a bit of background to Andy, his type of art and the way he approaches his art pieces.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPDH8yCnlk0
We then showed the students a variety of pictures of Andy's work, and they were just as amazed as we were that everything was created with natural materials. The students enjoyed talking about what the art looked like and how it made them feel (we loved the comment, "art is something you make to make someone else feel happy"). We then provided students with a variety of materials to create their own versions of Andy's artwork. We talked about lines and texture and colour, and were very impressed with how the students worked with the materials.
They will have these materials available for use during the next few weeks. We will also extend this learning by taking the students outside this week to see what they are able to create outside.
If you have any interesting natural materials at home that you think might be of interest to the students as we further explore this artist's work, please send it in! We have already had additions of shells and a variety of rocks, and would be very interested in adding to the collections!
