Community Arts Project~

Hello everyone and welcome to this blog's FINAL POST! =(

This past Wednesday we had our Community Arts Project (CAP) presentations! There were many issues that we as students are passionate about and I love how that aspect came alive in class that day. Thank you all for the wonderful presentations.

As for my CAP presentation, I think it went really well. My group consisted of 5 members - Angela, Melody, Tara, Helen, and myself (Kelly).

In summary, our group was passionate about the issue of mental health in children. We believed that in general people associate such a negative connotation with individual who have mental health issues by referring to these individuals as "crazy."  However, we want to educate children that individuals who have mental health issues are not "crazy," they are just like any other person who is in need of help. This is why we believe in advocating for children to express their feelings without being scrutinized in the classroom. In elementary schools, we wanted to stress the importance of children being able to express their social and emotional states. Because of my group's work with the guerrilla art, Post-its inspired us once again to create our "big" project idea to promote awareness about this issue for children. Also, this project comes in a form of package that can be easily mailed to schools.

Our big project idea is known as "Stick-it!" and this is generally how it would be implemented into a classroom: 

• Ideally, it is supposed to be implemented in February since it is known as mental health awareness month.
• Teacher can begin to share a quote/ statistic/ picture (depending on the age group of the children) about mental health and encourage the children to offer their input on it.
• Teachers can then encourage children to express what they think or feel either by writing and or drawing on the post-its.
• Post-its can be easily incorporated into the classroom by sticking them to a wall or a bulletin board. 
• When children take a post-it and finish writing and or drawing on it, they decide whether or not they want to post it back on the wall and share it with the class. Ideally, teachers can encourage children to share their post-its. 

Our stakeholders are:

• Fairglen Public School
• Staples Business Depot
• Kids Help Phone
• Vista Print
• To Write Love on Her Arms

I think our presentation went really well. We were just glad we got it done and over with. However, I think it would have been cool to actually bring in props that symbolized what the teacher package would have looked like. We could have demonstrated how the content would have been organized and such. One positive aspect about our presentation is that many people seemed to have liked the video that was shown in class (which can be found in my previous "Guerrilla Art" post). 

Overall, we were all nervous to present our big idea to the class but we're glad we did. We believe it is a relatively simple yet effective idea that teachers can use to begin their day with children. 

xoxoxoxoxo

Now, let's end this final blog post, with the...

Art Word of the Week!

This week's art word is Texture! Texture "refers to the surface quality of a work of art" (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009, p.144). Usually, artists love to use different materials with various surfaces to add uniqueness to their artwork. Also, using different textures can inspire artists to create new forms of artwork instead of always using the same materials over and over again. Here is an example of texture that is primarily used in digital art: 

http://aethereality.net/textures.php

I can't believe that this is my final post! Hopefully, those in internet land found some sort of amusement in my posts... Now, for my final sign out...


Until whenever fellow bloggers! :D


~Kellz


References:

Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, E. J. (2009). Art & creative development for young children (6^th Ed.). Delmar, USA: Cengage Learning.

Guerrilla Art

Once again, let's begin this post with the trusty...

Art Word of the Week!

This week's art word is Lines! Line is defined as a "visible mark made by an artistic tool" (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009, p. 366). They can be short, long, thick, thin, horizontal, vertical, diagonal, jagged, smooth, and dark or light (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009). Without lines, a lot of famous artwork would not even exist today. Children entering the fascinating world of lines can improve on their fine motor skills especially when they need to draw different types of lines as the ones mentioned previously.

xoxoxoxo

This week's blog post required a guerrilla art to be done. Instead of doing this alone, I decided to join a group. Group members consisted of: Angela, Melody, Tara, and me (Kelly). 

Before I even start explaining what we did, here is a FANTASTIC video that one of my group members (Melody!!!) created showcasing our guerrilla art in action as well as people's reactions to it! 

As you can see, our guerrilla art consisted of post-its that actually have positive comments written on them. We decided to go with this idea of writing positive comments on post-its and placing them randomly all over a table in our University's cafeteria because since it is the end of the term it tends to get very stressful for students and faculty. Therefore, we decided that people could use more positivity during this hectic time of year and wrote positive comments on those post-its so people can take away that positivity with them. We even drew on some of them! Group members Angela and Melody set up the guerrilla art in the morning at the cafetaria when it was not very busy. 

What was interesting to see was people's reactions. In the video you saw many people take post-its meanwhile others would walk around it because it just seemed weird that there was a table full of post-its in a university cafeteria. It was just very out of place. There were even some people that when they saw this table filled with post-its they even walked FURTHER AWAY from it! It was quite a sight to behold. My group members and I were happy to find out that people actually kept some of the post-its as seen in the video. There were even some people who stuck the post-it on themselves! 

This whole experience was so much fun. It was something new that my group members and I got to experience together which hopefully brought smiles to people's faces. We would not mind doing it again!

Before I ended this post,I just wanted to say: to the people who took one THANK YOU and the people who haven't YOU SHOULD HAVE! :D

Until next time fellow bloggers!

~Kellz

References:

Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, E. J. (2009). Art & creative development for young children (6^th Ed.). Delmar, USA: Cengage Learning.

Magical Thinking ~

Hey everyone! Let's begin this post with...

Art Word of the Week!

This week's art word is Shape! Shape refers to "the outside form of a two-dimensional object that has length and width" (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009, p.368). It is defined by many characteristics such as the color, texture, and outline (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009) The shape can be simple, complex, tall, short, big, large, heavy, light, abstract, realistic, symmetrical, asymmetrical, etc etc etc...  (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009, p.140).

For Art's Explorer #8, it provided our imaginations with a workout it needed by giving life to an inanimate object. 

The object that I am giving life to is (drum roll, please....)...

I chose this lil' guy because my mother bought this stuffed animal for me when I was 2yrs old and it was a huge part of my childhood. Therefore, he came from a store. His personality amazes me since he came from a store. Now, enough of my blabbering, it is time to introduce [The Great] Loki the Hopster!

The Great Loki the Hopster lives in my closet. For the past 10 years, he has been renovating my closet to suit his needs. 

Loki the Hopster has two nicknames: Loki and Hoppie. However, if you wish to refer to him by his full name, YOU MUST address him as THE GREAT Loki the Hopster. If you do not, you will be confronted by his anger which will then turn into rambles that NEVER END which only explain why he needs to be known as the GREAT Loki the Hopster. Patience is his forte as long as you execute the aura of "cuteness." Here is a tip if you want him to be patient with you: BRING SWEET TREATS. Cheesecake is particularly his favorite. Sweet treats are the key to his heart and intelligence. 

He loves to travel. It is still a wonder to me how he is able to fit all those souvenirs into the closet and how does he get onto the plane the first place. Apparently, it's a secret. He can be competitive but it only involves when he plays online games. When he overdoses on chocolate chip cookies by Mr. Christie, he speaks in Java Script. Yes, Java Script. How he is able to do that, still baffles me but it has helped me learn what Java Script is though.

He likes to read books about philosophy. He does not like fake people , people who fish for complements, people who won't do anything on their own, and misinformed people. If he meets people like this, you will see what I call the ultimate Sarcastic Hoppie.  Depending on his mood, if he needs a laugh Loki likes to confuse people with his sarcasm and if you do not get his sarcasm well then you are just screwed. Also, he loves helping people...for a price. As I said before, bring him sweets and that 'price' is gone. =D

Loki is able to speak two languages fluently: English and Portuguese. However, he has insisted on learning Latin because he wants to prove that it is not a dead language since he is trying to learn it. Plus, according to him, it helps confuse people more. He also has many friends. Once I decided to visit Loki in his closet and found other creatures there that strangely resembled the cast of Winnie the Pooh. But the strangest thing was that they were discussing about the concept of gravity because Pooh Bear defied gravity by using a bunch of balloons to help him float to a bee hive to retrieve honey. 

Honestly, the one lesson that I have learned after meeting THE GREAT Loki the Hopster was that YOU SHOULD NEVER JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER. Loki looked so cute in his pajamas but I never expected such a complex character from him. But I still love him. He inspired me to become who I am today. Well, I hope all of you got to know one of my best buddies and remember two key things about: Sweets are the way to his heart and when addressing him by full name please do not forgot to mention "THE GREAT Loki the Hopster."

xoxoxoxo

The last thing I want to mention before I end this post is that an activity like this is an excellent opportunity for children to exercise their imaginations. It causes them to think outside the box and it gives them power to create a personality, essentially a story for something that they like!~

Well, until next time!

~Kellz

References:

Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, E. J. (2009). Art & creative development for young children (6^th Ed.). Delmar, USA: Cengage Learning.

Grocery Shopping with a TWIST~

Art Word of the Week!

This week's art word is: Mass and volume! Mass and volume "refer to a solid, three-dimensional body that has height, length, and width" (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009, p. 366). Mass and volume can be portrayed as: "heavy, light, delicate, opaque, transparent, angular, curved, hard, soft, big, small, stationary or moving" (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009, p. 142). When we go grocery shopping and inspect the food we want to purchase, we examine the food with concepts associated to mass and volume. For example, when we examine fruits we look at the size of them and think about how they feel. These two factors can help determine if the fruit is good or bad. 

This relates to ECE because by encouraging children to compare and contrast foods will expose them to new kinds of foods that they have never tried. It will cause children to become more critical about the foods they eat or want to eat in the future. They can think about foods in a new light such as describing them differently. Children can even be exposed to new cultural foods and learn about cultures through their cuisine.

For Art's Explorer #7, I decided to focus on a food category. The food category that I chose was SWEET TREATS! 

Here is a list of different sweet treats that vary in their mass and volume!

1. Strawberry Shortcake
2. Chocolate Chip Cookies
3. Ice cream
4. Candy
5. Chocolate Bars
6. Cupcakes
7. Brownies
8. Donut
9. Strawberry Cheesecake
10. White Chocolate Mousse
11. Pasteis de Natas (Portuguese dessert)
12. Pudding
13. Sweet Bread
14. Chocolate Fudge Cake
15. Tiramisu

These 15 food items have different qualities about them. For example, ice cream is cold and can melt but chocolate bars tend to be crunchy. The cheesecakes and regular cakes are softer to chew and bigger in size whereas chocolate chip cookies are crunchier and harder. Cakes tend to be larger than a donut, chocolate bar, and candy. Cakes also tend to be in a circular shape whereas chocolate bars and brownies tend to be in a rectangular form. 

And now I leave you guys with my three quick sketches! They consist of the ice cream, cupcake, and strawberry cheesecake: 

Sorry for the poor quality but since my scanner does not work I had to resort taking a picture with my camera and uploading it here.

Until next time!

~Kellz

References:

Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, E. J. (2009). Art & creative development for young children (6^th Ed.). Delmar, USA: Cengage Learning.

Scrap-booking with Scissors

Art Word of the Week!

This week's art word is: Space! Space is "the total area defined by the size of the artist's paper or canvas" (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009, p. 368). There are two types of space. The first is known as positive space which means the content that occupies the space (i.e., paper) (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009). The second is negative space which signifies the empty areas that are not being occupied with content (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009). This relates to ECE because if children do not know how to effectively use the amount of space provided for them to do their work then most likely they have a difficult time organizing their thinking processes.

Now, moving on to my potential idea :)

First off, I would like to begin by stating that this week's art word relates to my idea of scrap-booking with scissors because children need to know how to organize their information and use the amount of space that the pages offer them.

Core components of the Activity:

http://scrapbooking.cc/

A simple booklet containing blank pages will be given to children as their scrapbook. Children can put anything of significance to them into their own scrapbook at any time they want. They can take pictures, draw, write, etc into their scrapbooks. The teacher does not need to tell the children when or what to put in their own personalized scrapbooks. Teachers will encourage children to share a part of their scrapbook that they feel comfortable discussing about with others. At the end of the year, children can take their scrapbooks home. The purpose of this is to help children organize their thoughts and ideas to effectively express themselves to others either verbally, artistically, and or through written means. 

This simply activity helps communicate personal identity and understanding of the world that surrounds children. Personal identity can be developed because the information that the children decided to put into their scrapbooks has an impact on them and it is usually a significant event that has helped children's growth. Children also gain an understanding of the world that surrounds them because once they begin to see their peers' scrapbooks, children see a sense of individuality and uniqueness among everyone. Lastly, children being to discover their peers' likes and dislikes and what is important to them.

Hope you all enjoyed this potential idea of mine. Maybe, one day, I'll be able to do something like this with children that I may work with.

Until next time!

~Kellz

References:

Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, E. J. (2009). Art & creative development for young children (6^th Ed.). Delmar, USA: Cengage Learning.

Art Film ~ Princess Mononoke

For Art's Explorer #5 I chose to watch the movie Princess Mononoke. I am a huge fan of Miyazaki's work. I believe that he knows how to execute wonderful story lines with beautiful, breathtaking animation. After watching the movie, my two friends and I discussed about it and well it was an interesting conversation...

Kelly . says

The movie was beautiful

Animation simply amazing!

Aira3 . says

yes so were the music

i LOVED the tatara woman working song

mary anne - says

i found the plot to be very informative, even though it was in a fictional world.

Kelly . says

Mhmm, I have downloaded the OST. I love the  musical pieces that were incorporated into this movie.

informative about what?

Aira3 . says

Joe Hisashi does a lot of the music for Miyazaki and he is amazing!

Kelly . says

Ooo, I've heard of Joe Hisashi: talented man.

Aira3 . says

well Miyazaki's movies (more for the earlier ones) were meaningful

there were always messages behind them

this movie and Nausicaa of the valley of the wind were all very umm environmental based

Kelly . says

Mhmm, in this movie there was no good or evil sides.

mary anne - says

my favourite one was this one :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uLhnKsB3Sw

Aira3 . says

awareness of the natural environment and how humans were destroying it

Kelly . says

And I think it was trying to teach us that in order to survive we need to be at peace with one another and respect each other.

mary anne - says

they should air this movie after earth hour to help send out the message about how important our plant is

Aira3 . says

oh i loved that song too

mary anne - says

*planet

Aira3 . says

it's the 2nd fav for me

yeah i like the earth hour idea

Kelly . says

haha, that would be a great idea.

Aira3 . says

Sorry is i'm a bit slow, i'm watching the movie online again it's lagging me

Kelly . says

but this movie, to me, also teaches about the importance of life and death

that they are intertwined

Aira3 . says

yes!

Kelly . says

remember how the gods were scared to die

they didnt want to embrace that they will die one day

mary anne - says

i totally agree. i love how simplistic the movie is and the various themes interrelate with each other in a way that isn't complicated even for children to undertand

*understand

Aira3 . says

yeah but the movie is for all ages too

Kelly . says

the movie is really simple.

mary anne - says

the wolf god accepted towards the end of the movie though.

Kelly . says

thats what i LOVE about Miyazaki

Aira3 . says

it's not like too simple an animation that adults who watch it will be like "oh so childish" we take away some thing as well

Kelly . says

his plots are relatively simple but the topics and issues that he touches upon are relatively deep and complicated

Aira3 . says

yes

Miyazaki has a lot of strong female roles in his animations i find

the woman who was in that village

i forgot her name

Kelly . says

Yea the wolf god accepted death, it was sad, but it's good that he did.

mary anne - says

aren't most of his films like that though? where there's a strong-headed heroine?

Aira3 . says

well i mean other than the main character

there is that other woman

Lady Eboshi

and the girls of the village weren't the traditional woman

Kelly . says

I love how Miyazaki protrayed her

Aira3 . says

they were not afraid to speak

Kelly . says

exactly

Aira3 . says

and act

Kelly . says

they even told the men off =P

Aira3 . says

yeah!

and back to the Lady Eboshi part

she respected ppl of all different social status

i mean she didn't look down on the lepers

and she also employed the former prostitutes

i like her

mary anne - says

it's pretty sad that she had so much respect for people of different classes but not for the enviornment. I mean she did use some unethical tactics to gain power by killing off the different gods, and destroying the forests

Kelly . says

She really cared about the people in the village

Aira3 . says

yes, she was a good leader

she was really there with the people she leads

Kelly . says

and because of that she also harmed other living creatures that lived in the forest.

killed so many animals.

Aira3 . says

yes

Kelly . says

because of her leadership.

Aira3 . says

but she did it for the people

mary anne - says

i didn't like that aspect of the movie though. but shouldn't good leadership involve respecting everything that a person interacts with, not just people?

Kelly . says

but now it depends on the person's goals.

Aira3 . says

well she had her reasons

mary anne - says

true

Kelly . says

how about San?

I loved how even though she was human, the wolf clan still took her in

and took care of her as if she was their own only because her original parents threw her at the wolves to begin with and I love how San hates humans even though she is one

Aira3 . says

yeah

and it really makes sense that Miyazaki made them wolves

Kelly . says

so the wolves took pity lol

Aira3 . says

cuz they are known to take care of human children

if you read about feral children

like Victor or umm Jenny?

i forgot their names

mary anne - says

did you find that at times the animation seemed so life like?

like it was filmed instead of hand drawn?

Kelly . says

That's Miyazaki for you

He is known for his animation that involves nature

Aira3 . says

yeah

i enjoyed the beginning of the film

it drew me in right away

idk i'm just interested by these things

Kelly . says

He represents Japan's nature in the most realistic way possible that represents Japan in whatever time period

Aira3 . says

the god/spirits and everything

yes

Kelly . says

Same here. I love animation

mary anne - says

that's true. like there was one time in the film where i actually felt like i was in the movie and walking towards that healing pond

Aira3 . says

a lot of his earlier works had meaningful messages behind them

yeah,

yeah?*

it would be great to have a 3D experience of this

mary anne - says

that'd be interesting. i mean with our technology advancing at a really high rate it may happen.

let's petition the idea! 

Kelly . says

Lol!

I don't know how many hardcore fans would react though

Aira3 . says

even if it's only like clips

and i want to have it not like at the movies

we sit there

i want to have it like you go into a room

and all around you is like monitors

so you are literally surrounded

you know

?

mary anne - says

they'd be crazy not to! with all those fight scenes and explosions, who wouldn't?

Aira3 . says

so you can look at the mountains if you want and you can look at the trees if you want

yeah

but that would require a lot of umm technology

like have a whole room turn into the movie

idk how it would be done

mary anne - says

so what!? they do it with live action, why not animation?

Aira3 . says

but i'd want all sides of the room to becomes screens for the movie

mary anne - says

projectors, lasers?

Aira3 . says

the ground beneth your feel you'd see grass

above is the sky and mountains

oh man!

mary anne - says

hmm, well they did something like that for 2010 winter olymics. so why not?

it's possible

but expensive.. =[

Aira3 . says

like those planetarium but better

mary anne - says

why most everything be expensive! ='[

Aira3 . says

yeah....

Kelly . says

You guys really want this movie to be in 3D

How about his other movies

mary anne - says

YES! =] you'd be crazy not to

Kelly . says

My neighbour Totoro?

Aira3 . says

i'm biased

spirited away all the way

and maybe moving castle

mary anne - says

AHH! that movie is so cute. i loved the sisterly bond in that movie and how family always sticks together

Aira3 . says

but idk the more recent ones...just not the same

there just doesn't seem to the message

maybe cuz moving castle and earth sea was based on some other books

mary anne - says

but moving castle is based on war though

i haven't watched earth sea

Aira3 . says

umm moving castle it wasn't really war

it's more like howel running away

idk

but i like the one called...whisper of the heart

it's really cute

the guy asked her to marry him

but lol i'm off track

mary anne - says

hmm, interesting. i'll watch that once finals are over.

Aira3 . says

back to mononoke

mary anne - says

ugh, finals!

Aira3 . says

the ending of mononoke idk i like it but

i'm one of those people who want people to end up together

though in the story made sense that they don't end up like at the same place

but idk i'd want them to be together

i'm cheesy

BUT if you watched spirited away, it's like the same ending

they part ways but then vow to see each other

maybe Miyazaki had a message to get out and didn't want romance to sort of get in the way?

xD

Kelly . says

see the situation between san and ashitaka is that they really didn't have that time to bond romantically

the happenings in the movie just gave the two main characters a reason to just simply bond and have a friendship

Aira3 . says

but i enjoyed it

true

true

so anyone going to watch it again?

Kelly . says

Miyazaki is a very realistic story teller even when his stories take place in a fantasy world

I defiantly want to watch it again

I would LOVE to watch it in Japanese dub

Aira3 . says

i could find it

mary anne - says

same here.

Aira3 . says

but yeah

i think it's nice how we got to share

mary anne - says

let's watch another film, shall we? =]

Aira3 . says

and i got to see it in differnt ways

haha maybe if you guys don't mind coming to my cramped condo

i have a lot of his stuff

nausicaa of the valley of the wind

is good but i haven't watched it....i read the manga he drew

also, spirited away is a good one

return of the cat (haven't seen)

castle in the sky (haven't seen)

Kelly . says

haha we should do a Miyazaki movie marathon!~

Aira3 . says

yes!!!!

and we can make cookies in the shape of them little spirits

mary anne - says

let's do it! =]

Kelly . says

alright then! awesome! 

Last but not least, here is the...

Art Word of the Week!

This week's art word is balance! There are two ways to attain balance in artwork: symmetrical (formal) or asymmetrical (informal) (Schirrmacher & Fox, 2009). If a picture is symmetrical then the shapes in the picture are essentially balanced. Half of the picture mirrors the other half no matter how many different ways the picture is folded.If a picture is asymmetrical then there is no balance. Shapes are all different and placed wherever on the picture. In Princess Mononoke, balance was demonstrated throughout all scenes in the movie. An example of a symmetrical scene in this movie may involve animation about the forests. An example of an asymmetrical scene in this movie is when Ashitaka first fought the huge demon in the beginning in the movie.

I'm glad that I watched Princess Mononoke and participated in a conversation with others that enjoyed the movie as well. I believe it is important as educators to expose children to different type of art films because it will allow children to become more open-minded about various art forms and respect other cultures' entertainment industries.

Anyways, until next time fellow bloggers!

~Kellz

References:

Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, E. J. (2009). Art & creative development for young children (6^th Ed.). Delmar, USA: Cengage Learning.