Raven Collages

During my full-time stint at elementary school, 4th grade students and I created collages based on the book Raven: A Trickster Tale from the Pacific Northwest by Gerald McDermott. I read the story aloud to the class and we discussed the stylized designs and colors found in the illustrations.

All works started with a blue rectangle on a black border with four red squares in the corners to begin the border design. Students also had a template for the shape of the raven itself. I decided that since the design and space for it to fill was so specific, this would be the best way to go. Although by fourth grade I try not to use too many stencils.

After that all of the cut paper designs were left to their individual choice. Enjoy!

Navajo Storyteller Figures

The children and I learned about the importance of storytelling as tradition in the Navajo culture. Storyteller figures in terracotta clay depict that tradition. Each student created a storyteller of their own in terracotta air-dry clay, and decorated it with acrylic paint. Some distinctive features of the figures are the round open mouth, closed eyes, and traditional Navajo dress. 

Standing figure forms were shaped like a bell, and then head, hair, and arms were added using score and slip method. For seated figures, children formed a thick coil, bent it into an 'L' shape, and then separated the bottom half into two legs. Again head, hair, and arms were added using score and slip method. Figures were painted using a limited palette and some areas of the clay were left unpainted. Details were added with fine brushes and/or black sharpie marker. Enjoy!

Native American Totem Poles

As part of our section of American art, students learned about Native American nations of the Northwest. The  Tlingit, Tsimshian, and Haida carved elaborate totem poles out of wood to honor someone, to tell a story, or sometimes just as art. We studied their use of color and its representation, and talked about animal totems.

First, the children built their totem poles out of paper towel cardboard tubes taped to a rectangle of chipboard about 6x9 in size (I used the backs of old paper pads). Then they painted the poles brown and the bases green. Our totems were four figures high. We used 2.5 inch strips of paper in red, white, blue and green.

They drew each image in sharpie and added more color with cray pas. For images that didn't extend beyond the width of the pole, we just wrapped our paper around and adhered with tacky glue. For larger images we used a second strip of paper, cut the outer edges of both strips together, and sandwiched the two strips to the front and back of the pole.