Fall Paper Sculptures-Form

Something that you will notice about all of our lessons are that they are designed around a specific element of art. There are 7 elements total that are manipulated in all visually appealing and famous works of art. As we learn to use them, we increase our abilities to create beautiful artwork both aesthetically and technically!

In addition to this, I try to implement other variables that apply to our projects in order to enhance learning, and make the lessons more memorable! This might include music, books, writing, or history -along with some occasional costumes, role playing, and imaginative play :)

To start out the school year, we began with the element Form! Form is a piece of artwork that is 3-dimensional. This is one of the easiest elements of art to identify, because it's obvious!  We learned that forms are 3-dimensional, meaning you can measure it's height, width, and depth. As a class we identified items in the classroom that were forms (3-D) as opposed to items that were not (2-D). Form is most commonly found in artwork that are sculptures. For that reason, we created a series of sculptures over a few weeks using different materials!

In this project, paper was our medium of choice. The week we did this Halloween was just around the corner and fall in the air, so we learned briefly about the hispanic culture and their observance of El Dia De Los Muertos! In Mexico, Halloween is celebrated on Nov. 1st in the form of great celebrations, costumes, food, and dancing to honor loved ones who have passed.

Even though Halloween is a prominent celebration in Mexico and other Latino cultures, not all cultures celebrate it for personal or religious reasons. For that reason, our students made both halloween sculptures (skulls and jack-o-lanterns), and fall sculptures (apples, hot air balloons, and pumpkins.)

I didn't get a chance to take a picture of them all before they were taken home, but here are a few examples!

Kindergarten Paper Bowl Sculptures

2-3rd Grade Paper Forms

4-5th Paper Forms

Students learned important procedural lessons like following steps and directions in the order they are given, craftsmanship, accuracy, followed by a written summary of the project in their art folders (portfolios).

Already so early in the year, I have had high expectations of our students and they have blown me out of the water. I'm excited to see what else they can do!