Hello! I'm very excited to share a lesson I felt was very satisfactory that was part of my unit on peace last semester. The unit was inspired by Romanesque art and historical psalters. The elements we focused on were texture and form, I think, for this lesson. I did this lesson with my middle school students grades 5th-7th, but this could easily be adapted for any grade level. The challenge was for students to sculpt an animal of choice out of Polymer clay, paint them with tempera paints (and optionally add Sharpie designs), then to make an accompanying card to encourage somebody or give somebody peace by sharing uplifting words of life. Some students did encouraging messages, others used Bible verses. One student made a creative acronym. I did mine alliterate because of course I am obsessed with alliteration, but I did not expect anyone else to. I was so very thrilled when a lot of students came up with amazing alliterate names, like the "Turtle of Truth", "Worm of Wisdom", "Elephant of Encouragement", "Owl of Optimism", etc. I was so proud of their works and creative ideas. Here are some examples of student works below:
Hopefully I can find the rest of the photos to share eventually. I think my 5th-7th grade students quite enjoyed this lesson, so I hope fellow art teachers out there find this inspiring!
-Lauryn