I spent three years teaching PYP and it's changed my outlook on art education. The biggest way this shows is that I try to get my students to understand underlying concepts and actually think. So when I decided I wanted the seventh graders to try their hand at some of the Chihuly projects you can find on my fellow art teachers' blogs, it wasn't enough to give them a technique and let them run with it - I wanted them to learn from it.
During my introductory lesson I asked the students what other materials might be a nice substitute for glass (Bread! Apples! Very small rocks! I love my students but sometimes it's like pulling teeth). I found a pin from homesteadsurvival.blogspot.com on Pinterest (the blog has been removed so I can't link it - sorry!) and decided it would be a good introduction, since it's freaking freezing here in Mongolia and we could do something like it. So when they finally came up with ice, I gave them each a balloon, into which they put a few drops of food coloring, filled up with water, and took up to the roof, where it froze over Christmas vacation.
We watched a video showing the creation of one of Chihuly's installations, and we talked about what an installation is, and how there are many people involved in putting it together. They retrieved their ice pieces and had to work together as a class to find a location and arrange their work to be aesthetically pleasing. They discussed that this is a public work of art and needing to find someplace where it wouldn't be touched - unfortunately this installation did not last very long with the younger students coming and going from the school.
Our next step dealt with color. Another great pinterest find, Tart's lesson on making coffee filter Persians was great. Instead of looking at pieces individually, after each student made theirs and it dried, I installed them in my hallway. They've been left alone, for the large part - either they aren't tempting enough for students to mess with them, or they're afraid of me (probably a little bit of both).
I had to bring the coffee filters from the States (I've since found them here - ah well, not too heavy or bulky to put in my suitcase), and instead of spray starch used watered-down glue, since I couldn't find that, either. The kids really enjoyed making them, and it was a good introduction to the idea of using color schemes, although it seemed to go in one ear and out the other.
Case in point: halfway through their chandeliers I showed them a variety of Chihuly's work, and asked them to consider how they were different. I was looking for them to understand that he filled them out nicely, so they had some body to them, and one of the girls said, "Oh, we should have used just one or two colors...why didn't you tell us to do that, Ms. M?" Ah, well.
During the conversation about alternate materials, they also came up with plastic (eventually) and this is what they used for their summative assessment piece. Every day the school goes through LOTS of water bottles, and this was a great opportunity to recycle some of them. I liked the idea of transforming the bottles with heat - some Chihuly lessons do this in the oven, but I read on a lot of blogs about using a heat gun, so I brought it and the Sharpies back from the States as well. The heat gun was a trial in and of itself. I knew I would need a transformer for it; I assumed the one I already had would be fine. 100,000 tugrugs and two class periods later, I had a more powerful transformer and we were ready to rock (in the meantime, I had them try some process painting such as this teacher did with her students. I'll add a photo when I finish mounting and hanging them). They attached them to a 1 meter PVC pipe using hot glue, and then we hung them. We are fortunate to have these nice open atrium areas, and they really look good hanging up in there (although hanging them was a frightening experience - the kids were concerned for me and some of the girls were really freaked out about the idea of them falling down...please, girls - I'm a professional!) Anyways, it was a great project and such a proud moment when we hung their chandeliers that one group actually broke into applause when it swung free.
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