Tatum G. - Final Project

Final Project:
- Lesson on Perception with creativity project to follow

Grade level:
- 4th or 5th grade

Goals:
- The student will be able to identify abstract art and artists
- The student will be able to understand that people have different perceptions on the same object
- The student will be able to create their own piece of abstract art from their own perceptions

Materials:
- Various pieces of abstract art
- Large sheets of white paper
- Several pieces of string
- Pencils
- Tempera paints

Procedures:
- The teacher will first present a lesson on abstract art and artists. The teacher will explain what it is and the different techniques that could be used. The teacher can go into detail about certain abstract artists, such as Pablo Picasso or Wassily Kandinsky. Once the lesson has been presented, the teacher will then hand each student a sheet of paper and a string. Then the teacher will have the children drop the string onto the piece of paper and trace the string however it landed. Then the students will remove the string and create a picture from however the string fell onto the paper. They can create whatever they want and/or see on the paper.

Contemporary Artists:
- Judy Hintz Cox http://www.judyhintzcox.com
- Monica Araoz http://maraozgallery.com
- Jean G. Dayton http://www.jeangdayton.com

Literature:
- What’s the Big Idea?: Activities and Adventures in Abstract Art By Joyce Raimondo
- A Is for Art: An Abstract Alphabet By Stephen T. Johnson

Quote:
- “A sincere artist is not one who makes a faithful attempt to put on to canvas what is in front of him, but one who tries to create something which is, in itself, a living thing.”
::: William Dobell :::

Assessment:
- To check and see what each student has learned, the teacher could present the students with a test on the material from the lecture and the artists. The teacher could evaluate each student’s artwork for creativity and completion of the assignment. The teacher could have the students explain what they think the pictures of other students represent. The teacher could then have each student explain what their picture is supposed to represent to them. This will allow the teacher to see if the student understands what abstract art is and how people’s perceptions can vary for the same image.