Note: To protect the privacy of our members, e-mail addresses have been removed from the archived messages. As a result, some links may be broken.
I teach K-5 and part of one of my lessons might help the scraps on
the floor and the waste of paper that was mentioned. If this seems to
young perhaps you could elaborate on the idea for a higher grade.
My lesson is for 1st grade re:Matisse/Organic shapes and Geometric
I begin by having 4 students at a table fold and cut a 9"x12" colored
paper into fourths, then swap so each have four different colors.
They proceed to cut each into a geometric shape or two geometric
shapes without making any scraps (I guide them through cutting the
edges of a rectangle to make an oval---these are our only scraps and
yet they have at least nine shapes). I then introduce Matisse and
show examples of his organic shapes. Using the geometric shapes we
cut and saved from the above lesson the students cut these into
organic shapes by cutting a variety of lines making very few scraps
as we had done previously. Of course we go on to discuss arrangement,
"stealing" ideas, and giving others helpful critism and gluing. I
think the best part for me was having the children title their
collage. Of course they were nonobjective so you could imagine some
of the titles 1st grades would come up with. Tags, Titles, and works
of art displayed beautifully leaving very few scraps on the floor.
Hope this helps! And I hope this reaches the right people! This is my
first attempt at ArtTalk!
Elementary and Loving It!