One of my ABSOLUTE favorite types of art is Earth Art or Green Art. As someone who uses everyday objects that are given to me/thrifted in my own personal work, it hits close to home so you can expect that I would share Green Art with my students.
Kelsey Lapin. 2013.
Close up
Around Earth Day, a favorite holiday of mine, I always try to do a project with at least one class that explores Green Art. When I did my long term sub job, I made these great flowers with Kindergarten and did again this year, more to come on those later...One thing I love almost more than Green Art is when teachers ask me to do collaborations with them. What I love more than both of those things is the COMBINATION OF THOSE THINGS! One of our 5th grade teachers at Jefferson School, who has been a great support this year, came to me, in plenty of time before hand, and asked me if I could do a project with her students using all of the "junk" she had been saving up. With a few quick convos before and after school, we came up with the idea group sculptures and then writing about the sculptures. I asked her to put the groups together to make sure I had the right personalities and to ensure groups getting the project done on time :) It was that easy!
I CAN statement for this project: WE CAN create a Green Art sculpture that sends an environmentally conscious statement.
Day 1: Showed them a PowerPoint I put together with an AMAZING video intro. The title page of the PowerPoint was an html link to it on youtube. Here is the video. It is so good I have to embed it right here.
Here is the PowerPoint via GoogleDocs presentations. I loved it so much and Green Art, I actually showed it to all my 2-6 classes on Earth Day :)
Back to the project...
I didn't have to talk too much about what to build. Just to use what they were learning in the classroom and what they knew about the Earth, to send a message about the Earth through their sculpture. The rest of the time was spent exploring the materials and figuring out what they were going to do through sketches and laying out materials.
Day 2: Had a hot glue gun heated up for each group when they came in. Reminded them of proper hot glue gun use before they got to work. Many already knew exactly what they were going to do from last class but some had trouble remembering how they were going to assemble. All the groups got pretty far but none finished.
Day 3: When they came in we talked a little about artist statements and communicating vital information about their sculptures. Then they got to work, glue guns were ready again at the start of class and students finished building. I had a lap top checked out for each group and when they finished their sculpture they started writing. A lot of groups did not finish writing but their classroom teacher finished up the writing in the classroom. I wish I could of spent more time working on artist statements with these during class but I couldn't take another day without getting them too behind on other 5th grade projects.
So very happy with how these turned out. Thanks to all the donations from their teacher and other Jefferson families!
Recycle symbol with surround "earth colors"
Recycling robot, inspired by WALL-E
Polluted ocean
Car on a road
Airplane
Grandfather clock (the earth is running out of time!)
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