Kite Making

The Chinese invented the kite thousands of years ago as a military tool. Today it is used it is used for recreation and sport and the largest kite festival in the world is in-you guessed it-China. As we were doing our sumi ink paintings while studying Japan, it had to be mentioned that Chinese also use ink and brush for calligraphy and nature images. We started our unit by watching a video about China and then comparing and contrasting the two cultures. Which one can claim the origins of Confucianism and which Shintoism? students wrote, typed and printed words and phrases for each other to sort into a tactile Venn diagram.

Day 2 we began to work on flags. students used bamboo skewers, wooden dowels, or straws as the skeleton for kites in various shapes and forms. Kids with some vision drew on on bulletin board paper, while those who were totally blind used dot makers, tape, stencils or collage to decorate their kite. Tales were made with string and with ribbons tied to them, or crepe paper streamers.

Then came the test of flight. The week before kite week was breezy but there was no wind on the days we tried to fly our kites. Students would run and hold their arm high to get it going, with a few glimpses of success. For for someone who'd never seen a kite, much less tried to fly one, it was pretty fun. Next breezy Saturday when my students' families are looking for something to do, maybe they can consider taking a kite to the park and trying it again.

 

Zentangle Portraits

 To build on our pattern lesson and give our doodles something to do, my students created what I call "zentangled portraits." They used a picture of themselves, a friend or a model in a magazine, cut out only the neck and face, following the hairline and collaged to a larger piece of paper.

Some images took on royal or saintly mantles as the background was broken up with halos, arches, and crowns, and those spaces were filled with repeated marks from black sharpies. Some kept  encorporated colored paper, markers or colored pencil to add another layer of complexity.

Students who were blind, used Wixi Sticks to divide the space, and then stayed within each shape filling it marks such as stripes, O's or X's. I love the pattern-saturated surfaces of Gustav Klimt paintings and I love the way this assignment turned out.

Summer Camp for the Blind: Wild About Learning Animal Masks

Paper shipping tape used to build and smooth the forms

The theme for Georgia Academy for the Blind's summer camp this year was Wild About Learning, with a safari twist.  I taught four Art and Literature classes a day. Students made paper maché animal masks and each group learned about animal related literature, such as the Caldecott book "Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears." They ended up writing a haiku about the animal that that they chose for a mask.

We also went on a field trip to Dauset Trails Nature Center, which is like a free outdoor zoo with rescue animals such as bears, otters, and eagles as well as a farm animal area. I'm always happy at the end of the week, getting to know the students in a relaxed environment where they can learn without the pressure of credit and grades.

A student with her fox mask

Students with goats at Dauset Trails