Physical and Emotional Techniques

Our class has been studying stars and space, and while looking for space themed paintings, Sylvia and I came across John Hoyland, an abstract expressionist.

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John Hoyland, “Space Warrior”

After viewing several of his paintings and making observations, the children in our class learned about Hoyland’s techniques. He generally used very large canvasses and “stained” the backgrounds first, and then he poured, puddled, squirted, or splashed paint onto his canvas. He generally did not mix colors on a palette or apply the paint with a brush. In addition, Hoyland brainstormed a list of topics/themes that got him excited about painting. Our students did the same. Some of their ideas included “riding on a falcon”, “water bending”, and “skiing and chairlifts”. Next, we found out that Hoyland’s application of paint tied closely with his emotional state that day. The children brainstormed a list of possible emotions and surprised us by not only giving the expected “happy”, “sad”, or “mad”, but also including “confused”, “frustrated”, and “disappointed”. Our students loved experimenting with new painting techniques in Hoyland’s physical/emotional style.

After painting, the children  about wrote their own titles by stating an emotion and a noun that described their paintings:

Excited Sky by Grace Powerful Abstract by Patrick

Starry Night

Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” is a perennial favorite in our classroom, so it wasn’t by chance that we decided to name our class the “Star” class. The painting was hanging on the wall since the start of school, along with Van Gogh’s quote, “…and what is done in love is done well.”

Starry-Night

 

 

 

 

Poster of “Starry Night” by Vincent van Gogh

Recently, we had the children sketch their observations of “Starry Night” and write about them. A couple of students noticed the brush strokes:

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Others interpreted the content:

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We talked to the children about Van Gogh and his techniques, such as using short brush strokes and outlining some things in black. We also told them that he used a thick application of paint called “impasto”. We thickened the preschool tempera with some shaving cream, and the children painted in the style of Van Gogh.

This sparked additional conversations and journal entries about stars and space. The children brainstormed what they know about stars and/or the sun. We noticed that some of the students made statements such as “The sun is the hottest star” and “The biggest star is the sun”. We translated some of these statements into questions for the class: “Is the sun the hottest star?” and “Is the biggest star the sun?” The children made tally marks to answer these yes/no questions. We set out to debunk these myths by asking Google through the computer microphone. The children loved hearing what “she” has to say! We hung the tallied questions up, along with writing that explains the answer.

Is-the-sun-bigger-then-the-earthIs-the-sun-the-hottest-star

Next, we found about a half dozen library books about stars and the sun. The children paired up and read through a book together. We taught them how to use small post-it notes to mark the pages that interested them. They then took turns sharing what they found with the class, and we helped them read some new facts. As we move on with our star study, we will be turning our attention to our next British artist, John Hoyland, an abstract painter who sometimes depicted space.

 

 

 

Primarily Mondrian

Hallie Cirino, 5’s Teacher, CHT Preschool, Westport, CT

My co-teacher, Sylvia Grannan, and I were a bit surprised that some of our students were still unsure of shape names by this time in the school year. A geometry unit was in order, and immediately Sylvia thought of Piet Mondrian. After displaying some of his paintings, the children made observations of Mondrian’s work:

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Sadie, who has lived in NYC remarked, “It looks like apartment buildings and elevators.” Most of the other children noticed the concrete elements: colors, shapes, and lines. In truth, as we set out to find biographical information on Mondrian, we found that both he and the analysis of his work are so esoteric that it’s difficult to teach the children about the artist. However, we seized the opportunity to emphasize primary colors.

One day, Sylvia had the children close their eyes and said, “Imagine red. Just think about red.” The room was more or less silent for a minute or so, as our 5-year-olds pondered red. Sylvia gave the children a blank sheet of white paper and asked them to illustrate what they saw, and then write about it.

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The children shared their results at circle time and then decided to put it all together into a class poem:

Red Is:

By the Unicorn Class, March 2014

Red is a face,

Red is a volcano erupting,

Red is anger,

Red is a zipper,

Red is butterflies,

Red is fire,

Red is our class color,

Red is a ladder,

Red is a sun,

Red is a meteor.

It was such a successful process; we did the same for yellow and blue. In addition, at the art center, we put out black electrical tape, and tempera paints in the primary colors. We found small, stiff canvasses, and the children went to town, taping their canvasses with vertical and horizontal lines and painting the resulting quadrangles. Here’s a display of several together:

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Science: Drawing to See, Wonder and Learn

“Once we draw, all of the sudden we begin to see again. Were we blind? How could we have ignored the beauty, the intricacies of these simplest things? The convoluted network of veins in an oak leaf, the graceful curve of a clover’s stem, the starry splendor of a humble dandelion…” Fredrick Franck

When teachers cover non-fiction units, we try to provide field or classroom experiences so that children can engage meaningfully and therefore fully assimilate what they learn. We grow fast plants in the classroom so that their life process can be observed. We lug in boxes of beautiful books about sea animals, icebergs, and cloud formations so that our students can see rather than just listen to facts. We bring in ant colonies, leaves, and rocks – all to bring the outside world into the room.

All of this is brought to a higher level when we draw. I always tell my students that scientists learn by drawing.

 

Thomas Edison filled over 3,000 journals in his lifetime, filled with sketches and notes. 

Frankie's snail

Frankie, a third grader, learns about snails by carefully copying a picture out of a book.

In the absence of the real thing, photographs can be helpful. Right now education publications are putting out photo-laden books based on the Common Core, which are flooded with non-fiction. But a rich and detailed painting can provide the engagement we are often looking for when introducing our kids to unfamiliar topics. Looking at art is pleasing to our senses, and creates an environment that is open and inviting. Additionally, the act of drawing is a meditation – and when students create their own reproduction of something, it invests them in the topic. Their pictures also allow us to see what they already know, so we can easily differentiate, allow them to form their own questions, and help them to find the answers they need.

TRY THIS:

Jay, Green Woodpecker, Pigeons and Redstart

 

1. Take 15 quiet minutes to copy all or part of this Thomas Barlow painting from the YBCA collection into your journal (no phones, no interruptions). Don’t stop before the 15 minutes is over. During that time, pay attention to what you are thinking and wondering. Make notes right on the page as they come into your head.

2. Now take 10 minutes to label everything you can on your picture. Anything you don’t know, label with a question mark or write down what you are wondering. You have now laid out your own research outline for a study of birds.

I begin all science units by having the students draw. In the past we’ve started by drawing plants, the human skeleton, sea creatures, clouds, trees, earthworms, rocks, ants and owls. Find a painting of what you are studying (I found this bird painting on the Yale Center for British Art online collection)!

Slowing down to draw actually speeds up the learning: you would not believe the mad rush to the books and computers once the students realize they haven’t been able to properly label their beloved drawings! When a child draws, she realizes that she has questions. Those questions become her drive to learn.

Sky Lessons: Using Paintings to Teach Setting

CloudDance

Illustration from Cloud Dance by Thomas Locker

 

“The sky settles everything – not only climates and seasons but when the earth shall be beautiful.”

E.M. Forster, A Passage to India

The background of a painting is much like a setting in writing: it pulls you in, and puts you somewhere specific. We tell our students that “setting” is the time and place in a piece of writing. But it is more than that: it is an anchor for the reader. I like teaching setting by focusing on the sky. The sky is a great equalizer: we all see it, at all times of day and night, in all kinds of weather. It affects our moods and our actions. The collection of  paintings selected by Sara Torkelson in this pinterest board are a perfect way to show students of all ages how powerful the sky can be.

Continue reading Sky Lessons: Using Paintings to Teach Setting

Zooming In …

Posted by: Tom Lee
 
We spent an hour or so reading J.M.W. Turner’s “The Dort Packet-Boat from Rotterdam Becalmed” on the first day of the summer institute.  It’s a massive painting – over five feet tall and seven feet wide, and has a wall all to itself in the gallery.
 
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As the viewer in the gallery approaches the image from a distance, how does its narrative begin to unfold?  What  is the first impression the image makes?  What main ideas does it communicate at first sight?  Big sky, big ship – what’s happening here?
 
What surprised and delighted me as the group settled in and began to explore the image was how accessible the smallest details were.  Facial expressions on individual passengers on both ships – some rendered with a single stroke of Turner’s brush – became the focus of in depth discussions.  It was as if there were paintings within the paintings, like stories within a story.
 
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Who are these people?  Are they approaching or departing?  Friendly or hostile?  Do they know one another, or are they strangers?  What inferences can we make based on the details of the clothing – the shape of the man’s hat, for example?  All of these questions began to emerge from the group.
 
We noticed, too, how masterfully the reflection of both the small boat and its passengers is executed.  The small patches of brilliant red and blue, and their reflections, are two of the brightest points in the whole painting.  In contrast, other reflections are blurred and vague.  Taken in isolation, they resemble some of Turner’s later masterpieces to my eye.
 
abstract reflection
 
Every picture certainly tells a story, but Turner’s sprawling canvas here becomes more like a novel, and its details become compelling subplots with vivid characters. 
 
How does this “zooming in” correlate to your classroom work?  Can you think of specific examples where this sort of  focus would support your teaching goals?
 
We look forward to reading your comments on this trial blog post!
 
NOTES:
 
I’ve discovered that my iPhone is an incredible useful – and fun – tool to have in a museum*.  Without a flash, and keeping a safe distance from the painting, I can photograph minute details, down to the smallest brush stroke or crack in the varnish.
 
*Most museums (including YCBA) allow non-flash photography of artworks in their permanent collection. (Artworks on loan from other institutions usually can’t be photographed.)
 
To see the full image on the museum’s website – click here: http://collections.britishart.yale.edu/vufind/Record/1667701