Saturday, March 19, 2011

Dragonflies Galore - Art for 10 year olds and up

The Yr 5 boys I teach have been learning about insects in Science and I decided to complete a quick two lesson activity to revise and extend on their learning. The twist was that we substituted unexpected patterns and images for the usual delicate lace wings such as crocodile skin, water, bark & Mondrian reproductions etc. It might not be something you expect the boys to get into, but they absolutely loved it. As an added plus it gave them some fine practice developing their cutting skills. It is amazing how many 10 year old boys struggle with basics like cutting-no one has ever really shown them HOW to cut.


We arranged the dragonflies on foam core board and glued. Voila! 



Although I designed this activity for 9-10 year olds really a prep child would cope with this just fine, especially with some cutting help.




Next "my boys" are working on a bigger bee and fly which they will display a-la museum style. We discussed using text to layer the meaning which they have embraced  with enthusiasm. Keep an eye out for this in the next couple of weeks.


Note :The idea for the layout of the dragonflies came from http://www.walldesigns.net/2011/02/13/wall-painting/.


Here is a link to the fabulous free downloadable label holders which are perfect for museum stlye displays (amongst other things).  They are courtesy of Cathe Holden www.JustSomethingImade.com

3 comments:

  1. I love the simplicity of this idea, your concept of using harsher unexpected materials instead of delicate ones, added much more meaning and expression - it reminded me of a review we had to do on one particular work by Catherine Swan who made butterflies using magazine articles about 9/11.
    Love your blog its very inspiring.

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  3. I sooo agree that kids don't get a chance to practice cutting. This is a great project. School starts next week for me (I am a library media specialist) I am going to make a display of insect books and put some of these out as "freebies"...the kids are sure to love them!

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