Art Academic Enrichment
A Year in Art at the Covenant School
Central to the philosophy of art at the Covenant school is the idea that each child has a need and ability to create. How glorious to form clay, to cut and paste, to conceptualize and execute and idea! In doing so, we connect to God's act of creation and to his loving act of forming humanity.
Student curriculum spans art history and includes the study of important artists and art movements. The following is a taste of some of the things students study in particular grades:
In Kindergarten, we look at the oldest known art in the world, the cave paintings in France and Spain. During the winter, we discuss folk art and get to know the wonderful paintings of Grandma Moses.
In first grade, we study the Renaissance and look at the amazing contributions of Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael. We also design our own 3-D dream houses out of paper.
In Second Grade, we study the Medieval cathedral in Chartres, France and create art inspired by the stained glass, the gargoyles and the facade. We also study the Impressionists including Monet, Mary Cassatt and Post-Impressionists Cezanne and Van Gogh.
In third grade, we study how to portray three-dimensions on two-dimensional paper. We create our own value scales and delve into shading.
In fourth grade, we study artists who really knew how to use color, like Matisse. We also learn from the dream-like paintings of Marc Chagall.
In fifth grade, we look at the buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright and design our own modern structures. We also study recent artists and create our own assemblage sculptures from found objects.
At every grade level, students will work with a variety of 2-D and 3-D media including watercolor and tempera paint, pencil and colored pencil, oil pastel and chalk, crayon and printing inks. We also use clay for the kiln and modeling clay. In sculpture, we are familiar with paper mache, carving techniques and building with a variety of objects.
Risk taking is encouraged in art. Beginning in pre-kindergarten, we learn that mistakes are not a stopping point. For artists, mistakes often become the best part of our project. Life rarely follows the exact path we plan and neither do our art projects. Erasing is discouraged and we often start our most important projects with pen and marker. If something goes wrong, like a line is wavy instead of straight, we turn it into something we originally hadn't planned.
What a joy it is to teach art at The Covenant School.
Creative Drama and Theater Education
What is Creative Drama? The book Creative Drama by Ruth Beall Heinig describes it as a process-centered form of drama in which participants are guided by a leader to imagine, enact, and reflect upon human experiences. Through literature, games, writing and acting students are introduced to the world of creative play and theatre.
In all grades, students play games that stretch the imagination by using their bodies in guessing games and pantomimes. Often, students collaborate to create skits and stories relating to units that are being covered in the classroom. For example, the concept of a set is introduced in kindergarten when our classes class cover the Three Little Pigs. Children discuss each scene and transform the room into a village with a brick, straw and stick house plus a den for our wolf.
We learn about what makes a character and in the later grades, learn to develop characters. In first grade, we begin learning how to read plays and in older grades students participate in different play writing activites.
Through puppets, story boards and acting, children learn to tell stories. These can be personal narratives, stories they are reading in class like Little Red Riding Hood, tall tales like the story of Johnny Appleseed, or stories learned through song, like Waltzing Matilda. Students also learn the skill of comparing and contrasting different versions of the same tale. First graders look at the legend of John Henry and compare how each version is different.
Second graders divide into groups to plan the building of a cathedral which coincides with their medieval unit in art. Groups of masons, stained glass workers, bishops, tool makers and others must all work together to build a hypothetical cathedral. In third grade, students use Aesop's fables as inspiration for short plays of our own. (A particular favorite was The Meteorologist who cried Tornado.) Each child then gets to make masks in the style of ancient Greece to accompany their Aesop play.
Fourth Graders study the life of Shakespeare and read a children's version of Romeo and Juliet and then act out the story with hand puppets. In fifth grade, the tale of The Emperor's New Clothes becomes a jumping off point for studying costume design. Firth graders research 14-17th century European clothing to inspire their own Emperor's clothing.
Creative drama is a wonderful vehicle to incorporate all the things we are learning and experiencing in school and the world.
