Clay Dragons : As Self Portraits

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Clay Dragons : As Self Portraits

(as developed from Emphasis Art textbook)

Students will pull head and leg forms from a ball of clay and construct a dragon. Students will form eyes, mouths, tails, wings, and textures on the surface of their clay.

Grade Level: 3-4^th grade

Time: 10 class periods

Rationale:

Ms. Kanak when you pour paint down the sink...

Students will discuss whether scary or ugly things can be art. Students will describe how their dragon makes them feel, their dragon’s personality, how it interacts with friends or enemies that try to hurt it, whether it has any children, what the children are like. Students will be able to describe how their dragon’s diet and defense mechanisms relate to those the students use themselves. Students will become familiar with postmodern principles such as play, appropriation, and exploration. Students should use resource imagery to create realism if that is the desired effect.

Key Artistic Concepts:

Appropriation, play, texture, envision, exploration.

Lesson Objective(s):

Students will pull head and leg forms from a ball of clay. Students will form the features of their dragons using this technique. Students will describe similar forms in nature, such as other animals, tree branches, textures found in nature..etc.

Assessment:

Students will be assessed on the following: written explanation of process, interpretation, technical proficiency, utilization of materials, attention to detail and form, class discussion and participation.

Key artwork/artist/artifact: provided by Ms. Kanak

Detailed Instructional Plan:

DAY 1:

Lesson objective(s) for the day: Students will view and handle examples of dragon artwork, toys, statues, and gather textural information from their surrounding environment by doing crayon rubbings. Textures do not need to be recognizable to others but should be transferred well enough to translate into a later clay reproduction.

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Dispositions:

Knowledge: (cognitive) texture, variety, line, pattern, repetition.

Skills: (psychomotor) make crayon rubbings on the playground to gather textures for later use

Instructional Strategies/Activities:

1. Presentation and artifacts: 5 minutes

2. Activity 1: crayon rubbings/texture gathering (on site teacher demo)

DAY 2:

Lesson objective(s) for the day: Students will write out personality traits they possess. Students will learn about and discuss different types of dragons as cited in Google image searches, “How to Train your Dragon” series -Dragon Species (HTTYD, fantasy stories, and popular culture (The Hobbit, logos, illustrations). Students will start to draw out their dragons today on ‘big paper’.

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Dispositions:

Knowledge: (cognitive) personal knowledge, adjectives, familiarity with outside sources and media sources, dragon ‘facts’. How to combine all the elements and information into a drawing, anatomy, ‘dragon anatomy’, translation of words into images

Skills: (psychomotor) write down personality traits, draw your dragons to portray the traits you listed. Draw them in whatever position or style you want.

Instructional Strategies/Activities:

1.    Discussing dragons – what do we know already? What have we learned over time? What animals are dragons similar to?

2.    Write down personality traits you possess that your dragon will as well. Conversely, write down traits you do not want your dragon to possess. MAKE SURE YOU EXPLAIN WHY.

3.    Draw your dragon! Think about the traits you wrote down. How would you depict them in your drawing? Does your dragon have a tough personality? Maybe they should have big, thick scales to make them look bigger!

a.    Keep in mind your drawings are the ‘jumping off’ point for your dragon made from clay. Be realistic with your expectations!

DAY 3:

Lesson objective(s) for the day: Students will continue to draw their dragons on big paper today. They may add color and details to their drawings.

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Dispositions:

Knowledge: (cognitive) How to combine all the elements and information into a drawing, anatomy, ‘dragon anatomy’, translation of words into images

Skills: (psychomotor) coloring, drawing, pattern making,

Instructional Strategies/Activities:

1. Drawing/Work day

2. Teacher sample used as example to inspire students

DAY 4-9:

Lesson objective(s) for the day: Students will be introduced to their final activity. Students will begin working on their clay dragons.

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Dispositions:

Knowledge: (cognitive) students will be able to match their drawings of their dragons to the developing features in their clay dragons

Skills: (psychomotor) proper use of clay and clay tools, sculpting, pulling head, leg, tail forms from a ball of clay to construct the dragons

Instructional Strategies/Activities:

1. demonstration of pulling technique from clay ball

2. construction techniques

3. discussion of different positions for dragon sculptures, size, detail

work, etc.

4. Work time

DAY 10:

Lesson objective(s) for the day: Students will display their dragons in the classroom and describe differences in each other’s creations, identifying those that look delicate, ferocious, or strong. Each student will have time to discuss their dragon’s features and reasoning.

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Dispositions:

Knowledge: (cognitive) adjective usage, word knowledge, self-knowledge

Skills: (psychomotor)

Instructional Strategies/Activities:

1. Informal critique/discussion of work

2. Public speaking practice (presenter voice)

Art Materials List:

Big paper

Pencils

Crayons

Markers?

Clay

Clay tools

Canvas work mats

Water buckets

Brushes

Kiln

Glazes

Teacher artifacts and samples

Ms. Kanak: The Dragon Teacher Lady