VCET: Linking Art to Learning

Creative Thinking Forum:
Art Play - Stories of Engaging Families, Inspiring Learning and Exploring Emotions www.naeyc.org/yc. 

I read the article -" Art Play" by McWilliams, Vaughns, O'Hara, Novotny and Kyle (2014). It was inspiring!
The authors reintroduced me to the work of Hanoch Piven, an Israeli Collage Artist. As I read, application ideas danced in my thinking. Notions which could greatly enhance the educational experience of the students I am privileged to teach! This blog is an effort to focus on the "dance" that I imagined and develop all the steps of it to teach and reach others.

Project 1
The work of Hanoch Piven could be used to anchor our first "All About Me" unit for kindergarten this year. Using his book, Let's Make Faces, we could develop a collage project and display the portraits for Back to School Night. It would have a dual purpose as a personal introduction by each student, as well as, an author study. Material would be gathered by teachers over the summer and families invited on Meet Your Teacher Morning, to send in small objects that represent their child in a "Me Bag" on the first day of school. The first few days would be spent learning about each child during Morning Meeting and when the class finished with their presentations, everyone would be given the opportunity to create their collage. The display would be coupled with First Day Pictures and be a grade level display of all the kindergarten students.

Project 2
A Collage Course could be offered as an after school opportunity and the work presented in the school, library or through the Post Office as a Community Link.

Project 3
This activity would be the main feature in the Wake-Up and Read Project. Families would be invited to come to school on a Saturday morning to have a bagel, hear stories featuring the works of Hanoch Piven, and be given the opportunity to create a collage of their child. The work from the event would be presented as a school display.
 * Implementation Note: I would like to practice the aspects of Wake-Up and Read before we had the event.