MrandMrsCollaborators

This self assessment asks students to reflect on how their learning has affected their whole person: Body, Mind, Spirit, Emotion. Word banks referring to aspects from different quadrants of the medicine wheel, and prompts about how their learning connects them with their community, help students to see the bigger picture behind the work they do in class.

Abstraction is a difficult concept for students who have been trained and rewarded for creating art that looks as naturalistic as possible. In this assignment, student are challenged to look at all of the abstract ways we have of interacting with the world, and to realize that abstraction in art should be no more daunting. In abstraction, the possibilities of expression are endless.

Students are often reluctant to learn formal art vocabulary. This pre-assessment is designed to show them that they actually have very good instincts about what the elements and principles of art are. They won't define anything, but instead they will demonstrate the principles via the elements. There are no right answers, but there are good, bad, and better answers.

This assignment asks students to reexamine their relationship with Water, and consider whether or not it is a sustainable, respectful relationship. Students will examine prior cultural knowledge about Water, as it is an entity of reverence in all religious traditions. It all culminates in the creation of an original artwork which will contribute to a class exhibition which shows collective knowledge about the importance and mistreatment of Water.

This classroom activity explores the idea of ideas. What is a thought? How do thoughts happen? Are you in control of your thoughts, or merely reacting to them? Instead of trying to generate an idea through force of will, students are asked to be mindful, present, open, and aware of ideas as they enter and exit their minds. At the end of this drawing activity, they reflect on how they think the image they drew came to exist in their minds. The mystery of creation is what they should be gr

This activity asks students to reflect on the criteria by which we judge art, and how that criteria shifts depending on the context in which we encounter the art. Can we evaluate public art, craft fairs, gallery exhibits, and popular art with the same criteria? When are we acting as a consumer? When are we acting as a citizen? What other hats do we wear when we encounter a work of art?

Just because students have a topic or an idea for an artwork doesn't mean that they have an artwork. This sheet asks students to consider what they want the viewer to think or feel when they look at their artwork, and then using that information to build a composition that tells the story they want to tell with with purpose and nuance. This scaffolding will help them have conviction in the worth and importance of their work.

Students will inquire into the idea of ideas. What are they? Where do they come from? Can you have an original thought just by force of will? What thoughts qualify as intellectual property? Through the exploration of dreams, students will become more aware of the happenings of their mind, and learn to express themselves with confidence.

Students create a self portrait from a unique point of view, and in doing so, learn about their relationship to others and to the world at large. Will they discover that they are indeed headless?

Talking about your artwork can be difficult; it's hard to find the right words for something that is meant to go beyond words. These guided questions and word bank are helpful finding the right way to begin speaking about an artwork or a collection.

This is an activity about order and chaos, contrast and unity. Students will explore design using blocks of Lego, and discover a thing or two about their aesthetic impulses.

Basic cheek cell swab lab for middle years and high school biology classes. Incorporates simple instructions as well as guidelines for sketching and calculating magnification (magnification formulas not included).

This assignment draws on students previous knowledge of music, dance, drama and especially FOOD to help decode the Principles of Art. In this interactive activity, students play the part of either 'chef' or 'judge' in a format based on television cooking competitions, creating artworks with the 'ingredients' ( Elements of Art) provided in the Mystery Box.