Week of 8/21/23 - First week back!

It's the start of the 2023-24 school year already!! Our start day was pushed back by a day due to hurricane Hilary.

 Zamorano had minimum days Tuesday, 8/22/23 and Wednesday, 8/23/23 and regular days Thursday and Friday.

I started on the collaborative art for grades 2nd-5th - 20 classes over 2 half and 2 full days and it was jam packed!!

This year our inspiration was from Zellij tiles created in Morocco -Zellij is a style of mosaic tile work from made from individually hand-chiseled tile pieces. In Arabic, it means “polished stone". The pieces, typically of different colors are fitted together to form various patterns on the basis of tessellations, most notably elaborate Islamic geometric motifs such as radiating star patterns.

Each class was 50 minutes where I quickly went over the class expectations and we delved right into the lesson! 

We looked at the below image and had a class discussion about what we see and what we wonder. Several students made connections of the colors in the Brazilian flag, and noticed how the image looked the same all around. We talked about "symmetry" and looked at a video of how artists in Morocco make the Zellij tiles. 

  I highly recommend the below video on YouTube that demonstrates the process in a fantastic way!

Each class works on a different color/ color combination on their paper "tile" so the final installation would have colors changing from left to right. Each students first received a 6"X6" Origami paper which we folded together in half, quarter and corners towards the center and centered it on a 6"X6" white construction. I demonstrated the different steps and differentiated for older grades with an additional fold. We used glue sticks to attach the Origami work - I encouraged students to first hold their work above the paper to make sure the white space was the same all around before gluing their work.

 

 Once done, students used tempera paint sticks to add details incorporating symmetry - same line/ shape on all 4 sides. Older grades had the opportunity to fold a small piece of construction paper into quarters, draw a shape and cut so they would have four of the same shape to use on their tile.

 

 I taped 3 pieces of brown 18"X 24" construction paper together. Each students glued their tile on this paper so it would hold 12 tiles on each paper and 36 on each panel. Creating these panels makes it really simple when hanging the final installation.

Approximately 515 student works put together on 15 panels holding 3 18"X24" papers that held 36 6"X6" squares were put together in our school auditorium!

 

Here is my lesson if anyone would like to use - I request that you tag me on social media if you decide to use it.

I hope everyone has a great school year!