My third graders were introduced to Aboriginal art this week. We started this lesson by creating poetic verses about the artwork shown above. (This was a new idea I picked up from the NAEA convention.) They were asked to list adjectives and nouns that came to mind when looking at this picture. Then, they worked in groups to combine these words in a poetic arrangement. Here are some of their awesome verses:
An exciting celebration with dots and swirls.
A colorful carnival of shapes and joy.
Mind-blowing colorful garden of dots.
Dark like the night and sad like the stars.
Super pretty, soft fireworks with trees in the dark.
An outrageous picture of colorful, striking flowers.
Red fireworks bursting in the sky, showing the feeling of anger.
This was such a fun way to open up dialogue about this style of art before I even gave them any information on the topic. I am excited to post their Aboriginal-inspired artwork when it is completed!