Arts Explorer #7 Grocery Shopping with a Twist!

This blog is all about exploring the common food items that you see on your grocery shopping adventure. Most of the time when I go to the grocery store I have a set grocery list and try to make it a fast visit. It is a rare occurrence that I have the opportunity to roam throughout the grocery and take notice of the different shapes, sizes and colours of the different products or their packaging. So this week I took the time to focus on such things. I mostly focused on the produce but more specifically I looked at the fresh berries. First I made a list of the foods that I would include in this category.

Berries
          -raspberry          -blackberry          -smoothies
          -strawberry        -blueberry            -cakes
          -gooseberry       -currants               -yogurt
          -cranberry         -juice                    
          -pastries          -jam             

When I think of berries the first thing that pops in my head is freshness. Eating berries makes me think of picking them fresh from the farmers field, which by the way is a rare occurrence. When looking at the different berries you can see how they vary in size. Although they are all quite small in size, some of them such as the blueberries are a lot smaller than the strawberries. I also noticed that they all share the same general shape of being round. For some of them they have an overall shape of round but some of them also have circular shapes or lines within it. They also come in a variety of colours such as reds, blues and yellows. The colours also vary in shades of that colour. Something else I noticed was that the packaging for the fresh berries is quite simple. They are usually sold loose of come in a basket. Either way they are it is easy to see what your buying and if they are fresh or have been sitting around for a while. Below is a picture of some of the berries that I sketched.

After doing this blog I learned to make more time to look and really think about the things around me. It really got me to view the things in the grocery store that I see on a weekly basis in a different way. By looking at the shape, size and colours of the various foods it was almost inspirational as to what I could make with them. This method of categorization is a great math concept to do with children. There are so many characteristics for them to focus such as size, shape, colour, and species.

Definition of the week: Shape

• "edge of an enclosed space" (Schirrmacher, 2009, p.140)
• "created by connecting lines" (Schirrmacher, 2009, p.140)
•  vary is sizes
• most common shapes are circles, squares triangles, rectangles or they can also be nongeometrical (Schirrmacher, 2009)

References:
Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J.E. (2009). Art and creative development for young children, sixth edition. Belmont, CA: Delmar

Arts Explorer # 6 Painting with Scissors

After reading the article Painting with Scissors: Art Education Beyond Production by Joann Honigman and Navaz Bhavnagri we looked at different art projects that can be made using scissors. So this week is an entry of an art activity that can be done with scissors and cut up pieces of paper.

 

Photos Retrieved From: http://www.andreaplanet.com/andreamosaic/samples/

 So what I've come up with is "Mosaics with Scissors". The idea is to create one of these picture mosaics. So what it is a whole bunch of small pictures that are combined to create one large image. If doing this project with children I thought it could either be done individually or for a younger age group it could possibly be a group effort. If making it individually, children might choose a picture of their favorite place or their favorite thing. The picture could also be of something they've experienced or their view on something. They could then cut up pictures in the designated colours to create their final picture. Children could also cut out pictures that relate to the topic of their picture. If doing this as a group project, then children can bring in some pictures of their favourite things or people and everyone one could combine their photos together. This would also be a great way for the children to share their thoughts, ideas or feelings with their peers. It would be a project that has the potential to be fun whether its done alone or collaboratively.


Definition of the week: Design or Composition
"The overall mark of success or the standard of achievement in artistic creation" (Schirrmacher & Fox, p.364) It can include creating something, making a sketch of something, or working out a plan.

References:
Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J.E. (2009). Art and creative development for young children, sixth edition. Belmont, CA: Delmar