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. And since this was group B’s last time in wonder lab and we didn’t want students to feel left out from group A. We decided last minute to combine the space exploration where student where astronauts exploring space, and we needed their help to document what they saw out in outer space. We brought that idea into this class by giving them a mission half way through class after giving time to explore the materials, they then created a final work to document what they saw in space. This explorative approach to introducing new mediums and tying in an overall theme into the students work was once again very successful and resulted in a lot of exciting learning moments!
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. And since this was group B’s last time in wonder lab and we didn’t want students to feel left out from group A. We decided last minute to combine the space exploration where student where astronauts exploring space, and we needed their help to document what they saw out in outer space. We brought that idea into this class by giving them a mission half way through class after giving time to explore the materials, they then created a final work to document what they saw in space. This explorative approach to introducing new mediums and tying in an overall theme into the students work was once again very successful and resulted in a lot of exciting learning moments!
Inquiry/Learning Target:
Key Concepts:
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:
- 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
When asked to share their discoveries, this entire table had something to contribute. They exclaimed how they discovered the consequences of different mixing techniques and color combinations, and how their choices affected the outcomes.
"I noticed that blue and purple make a really nice combination!" "I noticed that oil pastels are darker than chalk so they would make a really nice border" |
"Very light colors like white [... etc] show [better] on this darker paper!"
This student shared the effect the background has on the materials applied, illustrating their consideration of what they could create on the different colors. |
During my talk and reflection with this student, they wanted to focus on utilizing the first part of the exploration of sidewalk chalk and chalk pastels. They started creating and exploring both parts of the lesson, during the first part they utilized the time for exploration of materials to create a rough outline or idea for what they wanted to create in the final project. When I asked this student why they create the first drawing during the exploration and what they planned to do with it, they said, “I drew two aliens at first, now Im going to just add them to this drawing.” In a way this student was independently exploring with creating a reference image then applying that images ideas to the final project. |
This student wanted to utilize the color of the background while also focusing on one solid color. “I’m making this for my mom,” said the student as after the lesson they wanted a safe way to take it home. When asked if they explored with the chalk on paper, they replayed with, “no I’ve used chalk before I don’t like it,” then focused on exploring with the chalk pastels and how dark and vibrant they could get the purple on the dark blue paper. |