Each year I create a backdrop for the Christmas concert with the students and I just keep going back to winter scenes. I know, it’s crazy, but hear me out. The art room has been stinking hot lately in the warm weather so I figure looking at cool colours and snowflakes is only going to make us all feel a bit cooler. Likewise the parents and family watching the concert in the heat will appreciate the psychological air conditioning that a large winter backdrop offers. This theme invites all sorts of conversations about the northern and southern hemisphere into the art room. Plus - a scene of wintery wonder features absolutely no religious affiliations. There. How’s that? Have I convinced you? Well I’m going with it anyway.
The Preps began by looking at microscopic images of snowflakes and then tried three different processes to reproduce the natural patterns and designs that they could see.
On one table we had black paper, silver pens and snowflake stencils.
The stencils gave each student a solid base to start their design on and helped them to focus on doing the same thing to each branch of the snowflake. By encouraging them to only make one snowflake at this table I was able to get very detailed and intricate designs out of each and every student.
On the next table we used fine liners and poster paint to create our own unique snowflakes from scratch.
I encouraged students to finish three designs with the pens before using any paint. Only cool colours and pinks were provided. These colours were in line with the broader colour scheme I had planned for the backdrop, which was based on an image from Ezra Jack Keats beautiful book The Snowy Day.
I quite often will use colour schemes from other people’s artworks like this when planning a larger mural. The students found this table much more difficult because they didn’t have the initial stencil to get them started. It did however mean that every single snowflake was completely different and I do like that.
The final activity was the first step of each students’ piece for the Christmas backdrop. Using cool-coloured acrylic paints, each student created patterns on a small paper plate. I encouraged them to start from the middle and like in the other activities, continue a pattern around each side of the circle.
We have been doing a lot of circular pattern work leading up to this project by first creating collaborative bouquets inspired by Spanish artist Mercedes Lagunas
and then trying this lesson from the incredible blog shine brite zamorano.
The students loved painting the plates. It was obviously very therapeutic and I allowed them to spend as much time as they wanted going round and around the plate. Even if it did mean that our colours got a little bit blended :)
Meanwhile the Grade 1/2’s started their own snowflakes. Although I knew it would be a bit of a challenge for some of them I decided to make proper six pointed paper cut snowflakes with this group. The challenge is getting the folding right. As I always do when folding paper I worked with the whole group, one fold at a time making sure that everyone was on the same page. This worked really well and meant that I could ask some of the students who found it easier to help those who were struggling. Amen to multi-age classes. That said, I didn't manage to take a single photo while the students were working on these so you will have to be satisfied with the after shots.
Once we had created our papercuts, students painted a large piece of paper with one of five cool colours I had provided and then stuck their snowflake down on the wet paint. Using the paint as glue meant that I could afford to use a flimsier paper for the papercut since it was going to be reinforced by another piece of paper. This is a good thing because it meant that little hands had no trouble cutting shapes into the folded paper.
I knew that this would take some students about 10 minutes and others a whole session so for the first time ever I organised a video for early finishers - The Snowman. This animation is based on one of my favourite picture story books (although you could refer to it as a comic book/graphic novel) by Raymond Briggs. Like the original book, the animation has no words (outside of a very short introduction by none other than David Bowie!!). It is a beautifully told story and well worth a watch. The kids really enjoyed it and it introduced them to a character who would be making a cameo apppearance in our final backdrop.
Week 2 -Bling!!
This week was all about bling. I wanted to keep this session light and relaxing as it was our last session for the year. As soon as the students came into the room I took them around the tables and showed them the different collage materials that we would be using. Silver paper with sticky backing, sparkly bits, gold and cool colours were the order of the day and the kids loved it. I am one of those art teachers who tends to steer away from sparkly-arkly, so when I do invite a little in to the room the kids just love it. I really should make an effort to find room in my art teacher heart for a little more glitter.
My only request was that students try to stick to a pattern around their whole snowflake with each individual material - just like the radiating patterns we find in a real snowflake. The rest of the session was just bliss. Each student really lost themselves in their work and with every class I had those wonderful long patches of quiet concentration that only happen when the planets align and your activity perfectly fits the group. So good!
Since this was our last session, as students finished I invited them to draw a picture of themselves in the art room with their favourite art project from the past year. For the Preps the Robots project from Term Three was a hands down winner with something like 70% of the vote. I guess I'll be doing that one again. I never posted this activity but here are some photos I took of the finished product in case you wanted to see them.
So, finally, after all this preparation came the finished backdrop. It really didn't take long to put up. As the students completed their snowflakes I attached string and a safety pin so the individual flakes could be attached to a large fabric backdrop. To top it all off I made a large oil pastel drawing of Raymond Briggs' Snowman.
Thanks to all the teachers and students who helped put this together (and pull it back down again). Enjoy your break and I look forward to seeing you next year.
