Explore Room 24

Welcome to our fifth grade space!

We use art to support collaboration.

We use art to think deeply.

We use art to consider diverse perspectives.

We use art to express our thoughts and feelings.

We use art to bring joy to our learning.

Learning to Collaborate, Through Art

​In this lesson, student teams used new protocols to make decisions about their art together. How many lines to add to the work, which type of texture to include in the design, and what color family to use in the piece, were decisions that had to be made. Each team member expressed their individual opinions before supporting those with reasons, and then coming to consensus. "I can live with that!"   Students worked closely at every step along the way. 

Outcomes

Students were able to listen and connect to one another during this collaborative art task.

​The low stakes made our decisions feel easy, and built a foundation that we could refer back to, when facing more difficult choices later. 
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We had a lot of fun during the process, and got a lot of fulfillment from the finished products!

Using Art to Reflect on Literature - A Wrinkle in Time

Our finished wall includes student art with a written artist's statment.
While reading the novel A Wrinkle in Time, students learned about characterization and symbolism. Each child chose an item or animal that would represent the trait or quality of one character. They combined this symbol with evidence from the text that would support the representation. Artists traced their symbol onto a transparency using a fine-tipped marker, sanded the piece, and colored it in using oil pastels. This art was layered over a watercolor background, and embellished with the desired quote.

Practice helps the Process...

Part of our process in this lesson was to practice the tracing, sanding, and oil pastel art we would be using in our original pieces.
Using the teacher-prepped image of a goose allowed us to experiment and make mistakes, without the fear of 'ruining' the real thing.
The class and I agreed that this was a worthy use of our time. It saved a lot of trouble when we were working on our more important pieces!