As I mentioned above, in the
beginning I organized materials, class schedules and lesson plans for
Grades 2 through 6 until the number of classes increased to where I
had to let go of some classes because there weren't enough hours in
the day and week to handle them all by myself. As I shed classes,
first the 6th Grade and then the 2nd Grade, the
responsibility for Art classes passed to the classroom teachers who
then did standard textbook lessons approved by the Japanese Ministry
of Education. I did not use these textbooks, which was alright, since
we were a private school and as long as the required number of hours
for Art were provided, the lessons were at my disposal. Being a
foreign teacher, my Art curriculum became a PR selling point as a
kind of immersion program for recruiting parents and students.
To conclude this Call Me Mr.
B series, I've decided to discuss some of the lessons that evolved
over the years with a few examples for the various grade levels.
Grade 2
PET Bottle Dolls
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| 1.5 Liter PET bottle in back |
Children
in the second grade are seven years old, still relatively unspoiled,
full of wonder and enthusiasm and open to learning how to make and do
things. Manual dexterity and fine motor coordination are still
developing and these skills need to be worked on. Manipulation of 3D
objects are quite useful in learning to use the hands and tools and
different materials.
Kid
at this age like to make representations of humans, so what better
project than to make a doll. Interestingly, both boys and girls were
enthusiastic about this project. It was with some trepidation about
how the boys would react to making “sissy stuff” that I
introduced the lesson for the first time, but I had been anxious for
nothing, the boys got very much into the activity.
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| yarn makes great hair |
For
this lesson I had the kids bring a 1 or 1.5 liter PET (plastic)
bottle that once contained juices or soft drinks. I had them save
their one-serving size milk cartons from school lunch (washed of
course). Other materials included scraps of material from Mom's
sewing, yarn and any other decorations they liked. Tools included
scissors, cellophane tape, glue, bond, staples, etc.
The
PET bottle became the body of the doll, while the milk carton,
covered with construction paper with facial features either drawn or
cut and pasted from construction paper served as the head. The clothing style was up to
each individual and material was affixed to the pet bottle with glue,
tape or just tied with knots. Hair was made from yarn wrapped around
a pencil case either way for long or short hair. The yarn was slipped
of the pencil case, tied in the center with another piece of yarn.
Then the loops were cut with scissors, and, voila, hair.
Some
of the dolls were quite simple with the less imaginative kids, but
could get quite complex with some of the more romantic girls who made
princesses with braided hair and even, once or twice, brides
beautifully gowned and veiled. Boys tended to more macho dolls with
swords or pop culture robot-like characters from games and TV shows;
naturally monsters were big with the boys.
Conical Hats
Kids this young like to dress up in masks, funny hats, etc. I found
an idea on the internet for hats made from a paper cone. I worked out
a pattern that the kids could trace onto colored construction paper.
You could then roll the shape into a cone big enough to wear on the
head. Now, 7-year-olds have different size heads, so the hat has to
be adjusted to fit. To this end, I had the kids bring their cut out to me
and I would adjust and staple it to fit. They would then design and
create a head and face and glue it to the top of the cone. Voila! A
funny hat.
Strange Clothes
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| inspired by The Wizard of Oz |
To stretch the imagination you can turn to “what if”? If people
didn't wear jeans and t-shirts or school uniforms, what funny or
strange things might they wear? This is an exercise in imagination
and thinking outside the box. It also introduces a new
technique—crayon resist. The child draws a figure of a person,
childlike and puts odd clothes on it coloring it with a wax or
plastic base crayon that will “resist” water based paints such as
water colors or poster color.
When the crayon coloring was finished I
introduced (with great fanfare and bravado) the concept of crayon
resist. I would put my sample picture on the whiteboard, grab a big
paintbrush, dip it in thinned poster color and smear it all over the
picture while the kids would gasp in horror, assuming that I would
ruin all the hard work I had put (they had put) into the drawing. You
can imagine their awe and delight to see that the picture shone
through the paint and looked better with the added color border.
(Only a few were really brave enough to try crayon resist outright. I would see
them meticulously outlining their drawing instead of painting over
it. You could see the brain ticking over: “I put too much work into
this to risk ruining it!”)
To be continued...
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