During this Wonderlab, we as a group wanted to try out creative stations with kindergarten, by having them exploring different materials in their table groups. In the past we have tried to give the Kinder students prompts for our lessons and found that they preferred to play and explore with given materials. These creation stations cater to the students' needs to create without the goal of creating a finished product. This group of students is still in a stage where they're trying to understand the materials put in front of them. The four stations were masking tape resist with marker, oil based clay, oil pastels, and a 3D creation station that utilized cotton balls and q-tips. Each station had an assigned instructor that introduced the possibilities of each medium to the students. This also allowed for more one on one time watching the students explore materials, while also being able to ask more questions about how they saw the materials. The students took well to exploring freely without prompts with the materials at the station, with us teachers only intervening during times of peer conflicts and or misuse of materials. We saw a number of students going beyond just the paper we gave them to create on, at one table a student was creating a tape bridge utilizing the masking tape at the station with the masking tape and markers. Inquiry/Learning Target:
How does playing with new materials allow one to better understand them?
Key Concepts:
New mediums and tools lead to new ideas
Different experimentations lead to different discoveries.
Artists and designers test different ideas to discover new potentials.
Essential Understandings:
Artists and designers play, discover, and create with new materials to understand mediums, tools, and creative potential of each.
Skills:
Listening to instructions
Sharing materials
Creative problem solving
Respecting others
Cleaning materials
Taking care of materials
Keeping items separate from each other
Keeping area clean
Taking risks
Explaining ideas
Sharing discoveries with others
Documentation: For full documentation of this lesson for kindergarten click the following links;
Reflection: Somethings that went well with this lesson was getting away from giving the kinder students prompts and allowing them to just play. This group is still at a level where they need to be creating without bounds and without expectation. They needed to be able to understand a materials possibilities and limitations. Students were very engaged. We had planned on having them switch station halfway through the class but they were so into what they were creating we decided to let them continue until the end of class. Somethings that could have gone better were some small organizational issues like seating chart efficiency and sketchbooks getting mixed up as a result. To improve for next time we decided to call each student one at a time to their seat so there was no confusion.
Third Grade Lesson; Chalk Pastel Exploration
For this weeks Wonderlab we introduced chalk pastel and provided students the opportunity the explore and play with the materials. Similar to our tissue paper exploration, this allotted time is all about allowing students to discover the mediums abilities through their own creative processes. It's important to give students these opportunities to get to know a medium before tying a prompt to a lesson as it deepens understanding. We grabbed student interest by comparing chalk pastel to a medium they're most likely familiar with- sidewalk chalk. The students were able to use both in their sketchbooks to explore their similarities and differences and how drawing with chalk on paper differs from a rough patch of sidewalk. We also introduced some simple tools to help students manipulate the pastels, paper towels as well as erasers that could be used to pull pigment away from their papers. Students took very well to the messy medium right away, covering their sketchbook pages with different colors and using their hands to blend the colors together. Soon students were discovering the different colors they could mix, seeing how far they could spread the medium and how when it transferred to their hands, they could use their fingers as drawing tools. Students noted how strong the pigment of chalk pastel was compared to sidewalk chalk and in most cases preferred the more saturated colors. This explorative approach to introducing new mediums was once again very successful and resulted in a lot of exciting learning moments!
Inquiry/Learning Target:
How do artists and designers use different methods to manipulate different mediums?
Key Concepts:
Utilizing other materials creates new possibilities for making
Similar mediums can sometimes be combined to new ways of making
Essential Understandings: Artists and designers experiment with mediums to discover the unique qualities and manipulate them in different ways to yield different visual effects.
Skills:
Listening to instructions
Sharing
Creative problem solving
Respecting others
Cleaning materials
Taking care of materials
Keeping items separate from each other
Keeping area clean
Keeping selves clean
Taking risks
Community harmony maintenance
Documentation: For full documentation of this lesson for third grade click the following links;
Reflection: Overall, the chalk pastel exploration went really well for the third graders. They were using the pastel to draw on its and as well as it's flat side, they blend colors together making soft effects and new colors. They saw how the dust from the pastel could be used as a drawing medium with their fingers as tools. There was a lot of learning taking place! Some students used them to draw images and others covered their pages with pigment. Something that could have been improved on was students treatment of the pastels themselves. To improve for the next time we discussed proper care of the pastels.