Artful Explorations
Part of our curriculum at the beginning of the year is learning about the purpose of open space, under the bigger umbrella of Environmental Stewardship. As in many other areas this year, I wanted to infuse more art and student thinking into our studies, so I changed the way we started thinking about open space. For many years, I have used resources that can be found through The National Building Museum in DC, which has some great programs for students on city planning. According to them, open spaces are places where people play, exercise, or enjoy nature. These places can include public plazas or small parks that allow people to enjoy nature and the outdoors. They can help break up the expanse of asphalt in cities, reducing the heat in summers.
In thinking about that definition of open space, I started looking for artwork that could show people using open spaces. The Smithsonian Learning Lab, a free interactive platform with authentic digital resources from across the Smithsonian, was where I started to search for images showing open space. I created a collection of the resources I found here. As I was planning this, I started wondering if examining published art would allow children to "go deep" as they do when creating art. Is it the act of creating that helps them understand something better, or is artful expression of someone else enough to open these pathways?
As a class, we started with a painting called Central Park by Anthony Benedetto, which is from the American Art Museum. We used the See, Think, Wonder thinking routine to carefully observe and think about the painting, recording our thoughts right on the printout of the painting. The children loved that things could be circle and pointed out.
Then small groups each got their own painting to examine. We practiced the routine again, each group noticing things about their own work of art. Children recorded their thinking on the paper.
The following day, each group presented their thinking to the group and we looked for connections between the works of art. The class decided that each image had people in it and the people were doing something fun outside. During this time frame, we also took a short hike at a local park. We are going to work in our Reflection Journals tomorrow again focusing on the topic of open space. I am curious how their understanding will emerge through their own art.
UPDATE: Students were thinking a lot about the experiences they had over the past week before painting in the Reflection Journals. One asked if a community pool would be an example because people in the neighborhood could go there to play. Many painted about parks and forests near their homes.
Next, we are going to explore our school campus open space by examining how it is designed. Really looking forward to that!
In thinking about that definition of open space, I started looking for artwork that could show people using open spaces. The Smithsonian Learning Lab, a free interactive platform with authentic digital resources from across the Smithsonian, was where I started to search for images showing open space. I created a collection of the resources I found here. As I was planning this, I started wondering if examining published art would allow children to "go deep" as they do when creating art. Is it the act of creating that helps them understand something better, or is artful expression of someone else enough to open these pathways?
As a class, we started with a painting called Central Park by Anthony Benedetto, which is from the American Art Museum. We used the See, Think, Wonder thinking routine to carefully observe and think about the painting, recording our thoughts right on the printout of the painting. The children loved that things could be circle and pointed out.
Then small groups each got their own painting to examine. We practiced the routine again, each group noticing things about their own work of art. Children recorded their thinking on the paper.
The following day, each group presented their thinking to the group and we looked for connections between the works of art. The class decided that each image had people in it and the people were doing something fun outside. During this time frame, we also took a short hike at a local park. We are going to work in our Reflection Journals tomorrow again focusing on the topic of open space. I am curious how their understanding will emerge through their own art.
UPDATE: Students were thinking a lot about the experiences they had over the past week before painting in the Reflection Journals. One asked if a community pool would be an example because people in the neighborhood could go there to play. Many painted about parks and forests near their homes.
Next, we are going to explore our school campus open space by examining how it is designed. Really looking forward to that!
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