Unit 4: Celebrations
Artist: Nick Cave
Finger Puppets: Modeling Compound
Artist: Norman Rockwell
Celebrating 21st Century America: Graphic Design
Artist: Miriam Shapiro
Artist's Choice
Unit 4: Celebrations Reflection
For this unit, we focused on the big idea of celebrations. Pink (2005) argues “just plain laughter can lead to joyfulness which can in turn lead to greater creativity, productivity, and collaboration” (p. 204). I tried to create joy within each of my studios this project to truly encapsulate celebrations. For the first studio, we studied Nick Cave and his sound suits and then created finger puppets. I created a dancing hippo, which celebrated my favorite activity, my favorite animal, and humor. This studio would be great to integrate with literacy. I would read a story to students without showing them the pictures, and then have the students create puppets based on characteristics listed in the story. For the second studio, we created magazines covers celebrating an aspect of the 21st century. I created a cover with images of my sister’s service dog. I wanted to celebrate the fact that we have these services to make those with disabilities more independent. This would be a great studio to integrate with social studies. Students could create a magazine cover depicting an important event in the time period we are studying or a current event. Finally, we studied Miriam Shapiro and then created artwork of our choice. I decided to make an exemplar for my lesson plan. My lesson idea focused on heroes and citizenship. Students were to create a “hero caught in the act” of citizenship. This lesson integrated social studies, literacy, and visual art. Furthermore, Pink (2005) argues that “sometimes we need detachment; many other times we need attunement” (p. 174). I interpreted this to mean that while we need to be by ourselves, oftentimes we need to be surrounded by other people. This heroes unit ties in this idea by reminding us that we need those around us quite often; we are all part of a community and should do our part. We need to celebrate those people that make a difference.
References
Pink, D. H. (2005). A whole new mind: Why right-brainers will rule the future. New York: Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
References
Pink, D. H. (2005). A whole new mind: Why right-brainers will rule the future. New York: Penguin Group (USA) Inc.