PAPER MACHE MASKS

After my presentation about Ghana in West Africa, I decided that it would be a good idea to introduce the students to our next element of art, form, by creating their own version of an African masks.  They started by folding a piece of poster board and drawing half of a mask on the fold.  This reinforced our discussion about symmetrical shapes.  Then we stapled them creating a mask form which was not two dimensional but three.  Then they began to add cover it with paper mache.  We used torn pieces of paper towels and glue water.  Below is one of my students talking about her mask as she works on it.

REFLECTIONS ON GHANA

Here is your assignment for today since I won't be there with you.

I did a presentation Wednesday for you all about my three trips to Ghana. I hope you enjoyed it and learned something about one of my favorite countries. So today I thought it would be a good time to reflect on my presentation by doing a Ghana Quest. Write your answers on a piece of paper and give it to the substitute teacher or type the answers in Word and email them to me at lhewett1@yahoo.com. Good luck.

1. Ghana is in northern, southern, eastern or western Africa.
2. Which ocean separates the US from Ghana?
3 . What is the capital of Ghana?
4 . What four colors are in the Ghanaian flag and what do they symbolize?
5. What's the name of one of the slave castles in Ghana?
6. Ghana is located on the Gulf of ______________.
7. What are the two main religions in Ghana?
8. What is the name of Ghana's currency?
9. Who would live better - a Ghanaian in the US or an American in Ghana?
10. What is fufu?
11. What is the most interesting ingredient in Groundnut soup?
12. Is there any gold in Ghana?
13. Who are the janitors in Ghanaian schools?
14. Who are the Ashanti?
15. What is Ghana's most popular sport?
16. You'll find a few McDonalds in Ghana. T or F
17. What is kente cloth?
18. What are adinkras?
19. Why are some Ghanaians afraid of African masks?
20. What are some of the languages spoken in Ghana?
21. Why is it so unsafe for an American to drink water from Ghana?
22. Name two countries that neighbor Ghana.

While in Ghana I had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing Mr. Ablade Glover, Ghana's most famous artist. He was a gentleman and very talented. For your last question I want you to click on the link below. When you do you'll see a photo of Mr. Glover and lots of his paintings. Choose the one painting that you like the best, write its title and tell me why you like it so much. I'll need three or four sentences for your answer.

CLICK HERE


That's it. Have a wonderful weekend.

Mr. Hewett

PRESENTATION ON GHANA

In  preparation for our study of African masks, I did a presentation on Ghana in West Africa.  I have been three times for a total of eight weeks.  I showed artifacts from Ghana and told stories of the people I met and the things I did and saw.  Lastly one of my students posed in an authentic chief's outfit while the others drew him.  Later I'll be showing videos that I took while there.

TESSELLATIONS DONE BY HAND

After completion of their tessellations on the computer the students were assigned to do one by hand.  They soon discovered that tessellations were a lot quicker and easier if done on the PC.  But the ones done by hand were quite awesome as well.

TESSELLATIONS

Whenever I teach shapes one of the first projects we do is tessellations.  Tessellations are repeated patterns that can goon forever in all directions with no overlapping or gaps.  Their first tessellations were done on the computer using the Paint program. Here are a few examples.  I think they did an awesome job.  Next they will be doing tessellations by  hand.  Then they will compare and contrast the two.

WHEN IT CAME TO LINES, THEY BLEW IT

In my line unit we talked about all kinds of lines.  So in order to achieve lines that aren't possible using pencils or paintbrushes, my students created lines by blowing ink on a sheet of paper with a straw.  They really enjoyed this activity to the point of some of them becoming light headed.  I asked them to make sure lines crossed over lines. Why?  This created shapes, our second element of art.  They learned that there are two kinds of shapes: geometric and free form or organic.  Most of the blown lines were free forms.  In order to make the shapes more prominent I asked them to color all shapes with color pencils.  The end result was beautiful.

Before this activity though each student created compositions using the five basic lines: horizontal, vertical, diagonal, curved and zigzag.

CONTINUOUS LINE PORTRAITS

As part of our continuous line drawings, each student was asked to draw a portrait of the person sitting in front of him/her.  What is difficult about this?  They had to draw the entire picture with only one line.  Once they put down their drawing utensil they were not allowed to pick it up until the drawing was finished.  We also discussed the Denver Bronco's quarterback, Tim Tebow and the pose he has become famous for.  So two of my male students volunteered to pose as Tebow while their classmates drew them using only one line.

DRAWING ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE BRAIN

While on our unit about line I introduced my students to Betty Edwards' Drawing On The Right Side of the Brain.  They thought it very strange to do such exercises as Face/Vase drawings, Blind Contour, Modified Contour, Upside Down, and Continuous Line Drawings.  I explained to them that these exercises were intended to cause a shift from the dominant left side of the brain to the more creative right side.  They also helped them to see the way an artist sees.

FLIPBOOK CARTOONS

After having completed our line projects in the art room, I took my students to the art lab.  Their assignment was to create animated cartoons incorporating the lines that they had used previously.  By the way the name of the program they used was an online site called Flipbook.

HOW TO SAVE MY CAVE

After my students learned about the deterioration of the Lascaux caves because of the carbon dioxide from the visitors' breath, I assigned them the following project to be done in PowerPoint.  They work in teams and pretend that they have discovered a cave full of prehistoric paintings right here in Cerro Gordo.  Knowing that the visitors' breath was the main cause of the deterioration of the Lascaux caves, they must come up with a way to preserve their cave's paintings for all posterity and yet maintain it as a money making venture.  The teams had to design a poster in PowerPoint.  It had to contain the name of their cave, an example of a picture inside it and most importantly their rules pertaining to visitors and touring of the caves.  Below is an example of what was created.  By the way, in keeping with the technological process, they emailed me their final projects instead of printing them.

ROUND ROBIN DRAWING

After doing their "five lines" drawing we had some time left in class.  So I gave each student a piece of paper and asked them to start a drawing using a marker.  When they had been drawing for a few minutes I asked everyone to give their picture to the person beside them resulting in a round robin drawing.  They drew on each picture when it was put in front of them.  After they had worked on each person's drawing they finally received their original picture.  They all were surprised to see what had been created from their beginning.  Below is a photograph of the students passing the pictures.

DRAWING WITH THE FIVE KINDS OF LINES

After finishing our unit on Caveman art, I introduced them to line, the first of our seven elements of art.  They learned that there are five kinds of lines, vertical, horizontal, diagonal, curved and zigzag.  Then my students were asked to create an original drawing using all these lines.  They also had to use a straightedge when drawing the straight lines.  After the pencil drawing was complete they had to trace over all lines with colored markers.  But all vertical lines were done in one color, all horizontal lines in another color and so on.  Finally they made a key at the bottom telling me their color choice for each kind of line.  This simple looking exercise allowed me to know if they knew how to recognize and draw the lines.

CAVEMAN FIGURINE STATEMENTS

After having completed their figurines we had a discussion about why cavemen would create these kinds of sculptures.  So I asked them to pretend to be a caveman who had just made their figurine.  Then they were to write a statement as to why they created them.  Here are a few examples for you to read.

I am a cavewoman from Lascaux.  I created this figurine because it stands for myself and the patterns on my chest, arms and back symbolize my culturre "wind".  I like to hunt wherever the wind blows.  That's how they came up with my patterns and my nickname "Windy".  We don't cut our hair often, only when the sun is the hottest and the wind doesn't blow.

I am a cavewoman from Lascaux.  I created this figurine because it reminds me of my long lost mother.  She was a very beautiful woman who loved shapes.  She was confident as she stood with one hand on her hip.  Oh how I miss my mother.

I am a cavewoman from Lascaux. I created this figurine because my children had no toys to play with, so I told them stories.  One day they asked what the people and animals looked like, so rather than limiting their imagination, I decided to broden it with characters I modeled and drew.

I am a caveman from Lascaux.  I created this figurine because I wanted to remember what my father looked like on the first day he took me hunting.  I knew he would not live much longer so I decided I would carve out his face in clay to remember him af ter he passed away.

CAVEMAN TEST

Click on the link below in order to take the short Caveman Test.

testmoz.com/35400

First type in your name and them the Quiz Passcode which is 35400.  Good luck.
Mr. Hewett

CAVEMEN FIGURINES

After my students did their portraits of the four boys who discovered the Lascaux Caves we discussed 3-D figurines found in prehistoric caves.  So I took advantage of this discussion and asked them to create their own original caveman figurines.  This was a perfect time to teach them the basics of ceramics.  They carved the pieces of clay which is the subtractive method of sculpture.  Here they are completing their carving.

LASCAUX CAVES

Our first unit was about the Lascaux Caves and the awesome cave painting inside.  Back in the early 40's four teenage boys and one dog accidentally literally stumbled upon the cave.  After crawling inside they went home telling everyone of the beautiful paintings inside.  The rest is history.  So my students' first assignment was to collaboratively create a poster about the four boys.  This was the perfect time to introduce the basics of portraiture.  The pictures were done in pencil so that they could easily make corrections.  Color pencils were added if they had time.  All the students did a great job.  Below I have uploaded a few examples for you to view.