To explore religions of the world through art, the 5th grade students looked at and discussed images of doorways and windows of different religious and spiritual places of worship.  We looked at images of churches, mosques, temples, synagogues, etc etc. 

For this project, students selected a type of religious architecture to draw inspiration from.  After studying images, the students created their own multi-layered decorative drawing inspired by the architecture of that religion.


It is difficult to see in these pictures, (in fact, these pictures do not even begin to do the amazingness of this project justice) but the students built a sort of relief sculpture for this project.  Their drawings are all on three layers of paper, with parts cut out so that you can see down into the layers.  Each layer is held up by foam mounting dots.  Doing this really created an extra dimension (literally, no pun intended) of interest.

The third grade students started out the year by learning how to create decorative patterns by repeating shapes.  The students practiced making these patterns, which we called "doodle art" by drawing at least four of the same shape, such as four squares, then adding the same detail to each square to create an interesting repetitive pattern.

After practicing this technique and creating at least 6 unique patterns, the students drew a large bubble letter of the first letter of their first name.  We discussed positive and negative space and the students had to decide whether to fill the inside or outside of their letter with doodles and which area became positive and negative space.  Using sharpies, the third graders filled the space with these 'doodle art' patterns that they had created.

Once the area was filled with doodle art, the students selected four colors and used colored pencil to fill in the doodles.

I collaborated with third grade teachers to plan this lesson for 3rd grade students.  The students have each selected a local hero to meet, interview, and report on/do a presentation for a school exhibition night.  I helped the students to draw portraits of their hero.  It was a fun project, at times nerve-racking, but overall fun.  I was really proud of the students and their drawings!

The forth grade students are doing a Nick Cave project right now that I am super excited about.  The students are really getting into it so far as well.  If you don't know who the artist Nick Cave is, you're really missing out.  Watch these videos!  

I'll post more information about details of the project once the students have completed, but wanted to show some of the inventive, fun suits that the students are drawing!