Dot Day 2017: How We Make Our Mark as Collaborators

Dot Day is one of my favorite projects of the year. Not only is the book “The Dot” by Peter Reynolds a great book that students love, the story sparks so many great conversations with students and projects. For the past two years I have used the book as a jumping off point to lead a discussion about art, making our marks, how we make marks on other people’s hearts, and a discussion about collaboration and working as a community. Last year the culminating project was making art robots. (Here is a link to blog posts about that project http://thereimaginedlibrary.blogspot.com/2016/09/deeper-connections-with-dot-day.html).

After reflecting on last year’s project and some of the limitations of small hands and making some of the parts of the art robots, I decided to try a new art building project, building cardboard manual art machines.

The format of the project started the same as it has in the past. We began by reading the book “The Dot” and having the students map the beginning, middle and end of the book.

Next, we looked at the character of Vashti. Students were asked to brainstorm words they would use to describe Vashti at the beginning of the story and words to describe her at the end of the story.

Then, students brainstormed different ways that they made their mark with art and what materials they used to make art.

The next step was having students think about different ways that they made their mark on other people’s hearts. We talked about how we treat people and interact with them can leave positive marks on other people’s hearts. Students brainstormed all the different positive ways they interact with people including inviting people to play on the playground, helping a classmate to the nurse or holding the door open for classmates.

Building on the focus of positive ways students interact with classmates, the final step was asking students to think about a time that they made or built something with someone else and it was a good experience. I asked students to really think about what made that collaboration a positive experience. We documented all of their thoughts and then sorted them into similar themes. This process gave the students five characteristics or qualities of a collaborator. The five that the students came up with were: Listen, Share ideas, Everyone agrees, Everyone has a part, and Everyone is kind.

The next step in the process was to test their collaboration qualities. Students were put in small groups and asked to set the norms for their group to make sure that they use all the qualities of a collaborator. Each group set the rules and ways they were going to make sure that they would follow the qualities. I made sure to emphasis that these were going to be referenced throughout the process and if they needed to resolve a conflict they would need to look at their norms to help. Once groups set their norms, it was time to ideate.

Students were shown the materials that they could use to build their art machines including cardboard, wooden rods, duct tape, squirt bottles, paint and string. Groups then designed their art machines. They drew out their plans and then started building their machines. Groups used their norms to make sure that all students ideas would be included and that they worked together to make their machine.

Students started building!

The next step was the testing phase. Students filled one squirt bottle up with paint and tested their machine on a test sheet of paper. Many of the students had to think and rethink some of their designs when their first test did not work.

After reworking and rethinking their designs they tested again and then were ready for their final painting. Students used artist canvas to make their final collaborative piece of artwork. Each member of the group signed their artwork, just like Vashti did in “The Dot.” All of the student artwork will be shared in an art gallery show, just like Vashti in the book.

A new part of this project that I added this year was a reflection piece. I asked three prompt questions to get students talking about their process and any challenges that happened. I also asked them which of the collaborator qualities that they thought was most important in the process. I wanted to see what the students were thinking during this process and if they were making deeper connections with the work in ways that I hoped they would. Many of the reflections were very thoughtful about the work that they did and what was important to them and what they really got out of the process.

The plan is for the rest of the school year to have the collaborator qualities displayed in the library and in their classroom as students work together so they can reference them as they are working as collaborators.

Mix It Up Part 2: With Alexander Calder

The next step of this Mix It Up project was to learn about artist Alexander Calder. Calder is an amazing artist and he is the originator of the mobile. To introduce Calder we read the book Sandy’s Circus: A Story About Alexander Calder by Tanya Lee Stone. This is a great book about Calder’s life and the creation of the miniature circus, a series of figures including a lion and trapeze artists out of wire and other materials. The book is very colorful and the story is engaging for preschoolers to follow. I did add some details and explanation about topics in the book to make it more accessible for my Junior Kindergarteners.

Next, I shared images of Alexander Calder’s work including his circus wire structures. Then, I shared some pictures of Alexander’s work that have a connection to Chicago, his Flamingo sculpture is a famous work of art known to many Chicago residents. Many of my students were familiar with the piece and had seen it on trips in the Loop. I also shared some of Calder’s famous mobile works that have been on display at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art and the Art Institute.

I shared with students that Calder’s mobiles will be the inspiration for the piece of art that they are going to create using the materials they had painted with the colors they had created.

During our next class students will decide on the shape that they want to cut their pieces into and how we want to layout our mobile!

Junior Kindergarten: We Are All Unique and Together We Make a Beautiful World

The new school year is off to a busy and exciting start! The library that I work at went through massive renovation over the summer. I am so excited to use the new more flexible space and engage in some messy hands on activities with all of my students, especially with my youngest students, Junior Kindergarten. As I was looking for some inspiration on Pinterest and Twitter, I was reminded of the book Mix It Up by Herve Tullet. I love Tullet’s books and they are always a big hit with my students. So to start the school year and use our new design studio I decided to use the book Mix It Up as the jumping off for a collaborative preschool art project that linked what students learned in Mix It Up with the work of Alexander Calder with every student  contributing and creating an art piece to hang in the new library.

Junior Kindergarteners started with sharing the book Mix It Up and talking about what they learned about how different colors are created with the three primary colors. Next students used markers to test what they had learned and created orange, purple and green as well as making the colors lighter or darker by adding black and white.

During the next library class students recalled what they learned about mixing colors from the previous week. Then students moved onto using paint to make their own colors. Students started by experimenting on paper to make their own color with washable paint. Next they were each given a square of Tyvek paper. This material is sturdier than cardstock but still flexible and easy to paint.

JK students were really engaged with the idea of being able to create their own colors and focused on mixing and making! They were also able to recall all the information they had learned from the first reading of the book Mix It Up to the next week when they started their color creation.

Next I will be reading Sandy’s Circus: A Story of Alexander Calder by Tanya Lee Stone. Students will learn about Calder’s art that will be the inspiration for our collaborative art piece!