Week 4-How our bodies can speak our minds!

[julierae100]

Free Create Day!

Ah the brilliance that comes out of a real box, some tape and twenty minutes to play!

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Parade Day!! Lesson#13 May 14, 2015 Grades 6-8

What a beautiful day! With the cooperation of students, an excited student body and staff and a calm breeze, hoisting and carrying our work through the streets went off without a hitch! Students danced, smiled, sang, drummed and chanted their slogans about their vision for community. Spiral Q encourages students to “try it on”.  That they did.  Students of all personalities and inclinations showed up with loud, strong voices!  Community members came out in awe and support increasing the collective experience of being seen and heard.  Teachers, students and our principal acknowledged and celebrated the success of the day and can’t wait until The Q comes to do our thing again next year!

[julierae100]

Worst Case Scenario Practice for Parade Day...check! Lesson #12 May 13, 2015 MYA grade 6; 6-1 and 6-2

Rehearsal day (the day before parade day) gave us some truly great practice with wind! Launching a twenty foot sailboat with students attached to it by bamboo poles was not our intention...but boy did it give us some good real like outdoor art installation challenges to grapple with! Students held tight their art work caught the wind like a kite. We had to put it down multiple times as it was just too much to hold it steady.  I was so impressed then when back in the classroom students set their mind to work to address this critical problem of wind on parade day.  All sorts of problem solving came to bare...cutting the material more, huddling up, different shape formations to catch less wind, taking the mural off of the poles entirely etc... Regardless of the solutions we landed upon, the investment in the work, in making Parade day a success and in applying their knowledge and resigning skills to a very real problem were all in evidence! Great work 

[julierae100]

Ready for Parade Day! (And Taking Geometry to the Streets) Lesson #11, May 7 2015 MYA grade 6 sections 6-1 and 2

MYA students put the finishing touches on their murals, particularly on making their slogans stand out beautifully so that their voices are heard loud and clear.  Lots of questions and lots of excitement brewing as we discussed the coming parade day.  Students worked diligently to come up with possible configurations for our March in the event that our street clearance is narrower than our mural: what would the diameter be if we marched in a circle; what are the possibilities as an equilateral triangle or an isosceles...taking geometry to the streets at it’s best! Lots of work getting the mural rigged up on 10 foot bamboo poles-but the smiles on the student’s faces once they hoisted it up for a test run on functionality was priceless!!

[julierae100]

Holy Tribal Silhouettes! Lesson #11 May 4, 201 MYA grade 6; classes 6-1 and 2

Students did a phenomenal job embellishing their silhouettes with abstract designs inspired by body arts and with words of hope to combat the tough community issues that these gestures represent. They also had a blast switching up the contrast with black on white for their parade head and armbands! Lots of fun and what a productive day for all!!!

[julierae100]

Math Time!  Lesson #10 April 9, 2015 MYA Grade 6, classes 6-2, 6-1

Pole lengths=3/8 class average height (learning some anatomy here)+1 foot for clearance+height of mural to top of tallest silhouette...

Students got out the measuring tapes, calculated averages and got to work figuring out how long our bamboo poles need to be...ready to cut some bamboo for parade day!

[julierae100]

Abstraction and Contrast! Lesson #9, March 30, 2015 MYA Grade 6, 6-1 and 6-2

students had a great time playing with abstract elements of design today! With a strong base color down as their foundation, they had fun with color and design, taking advantage of their knowledge of complimentary colors to create vibrating contrasts! They did a great job with white on black design..we look forward to seeing how they apply this to their black silhouettes next session. 

[julierae100]

Playing with Abstraction..and onto the Mural!  Lesson #7 March 19, 2015 MYA Grade class 6-1 and 6-2

Students play with abstraction! Color, line and form speak to the emotional content of the community issues they are addressing. Then to paint day one on the mural; laying down a base layer of expressive color. 

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Paint Day #2! Lesson #8 March 26, 2015 MYA Gr. 6 section 6-1 and 6-2

Lots of excitement around painting our mural and making signs and stanchions highlighting community assets! Enthusiasm high but more structure in need as the level of activity had a bit too much of our precious paint finding it’s way to too many surfaces other than our mural! Live and learn!

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Learning About Color!! March 11 Lesson #6 MYA Grade 6 section 6-1 and 6-2

MYA students moev enthusiastically through color theory exercises! Ready to make a beautiful array of colors on the actual mural next week!

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Our Shadows, Ourselves! Lesson #5 March 4, 2015 MYA Grade 6 Section 6-1, 6-2

Students move their silhouettes that speak for change to the next stage blackening them out, readying them for high contrast design.  Groups also landed on strong slogans to speak to the community about what needs work in this community.  

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How Our Bodies Speak! Lesson #3 February 19, 2015 MYA Grade 6, 6-1 and 6-2

Having come to a consensus on what they want to see change within their community, each group works to create  life sized silhouettes of poses that speak to the issues they are tackling. One of the groups gets extra ambitious including two figures to create a vignette about community violence. 

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Welcome to MYA and Q!!

Lesson #1,  Feb 9, 2015

MYA Grade 6, section 6-1 and 6-2

A fabulous first day with MYA's sixth graders!  It was great to meet this very "spirited" group.  Lots of energy to funnel into art making! Feeling confident that the chatter of the voices in class will translate beautifully into confident ones speaking of and to community come parade day. 

[julierae100]

Abstraction: Line color and form say a thousand words... Lesson #2, Feb 12, 2015 MYA Grade 6, 6-1 and 6-2

...lonely, a black hole, like a supernova about to be burned out , a solar eclipse, music, a window looking out to a night sky, dark, the universe, sunshine coming out of darkness, anger, happiness, the sound of the ocean, a wave coming and tumbling everything around. These are some of the many poignant responses our 6th graders had to these works of abstract art.  Inspiring!