Community History
The Question: In what way can we explain our community through art?
Step 1: Learning About Our Community: We had the pleasure of having Mrs. Bowman, from the York Heritage Trust visit our classroom. She told us many stories about people who lived in York and things that were made in York. An archive of her presentation is below.
Step 1: Learning About Our Community: We had the pleasure of having Mrs. Bowman, from the York Heritage Trust visit our classroom. She told us many stories about people who lived in York and things that were made in York. An archive of her presentation is below.
What happened next? We took time to make sure that we understood what Mrs. Bowman shared with us. We did this Chopped style. Each group got four items. They had 20 minutes to use those items to tell the story of York. They shared their stories of York.
Below is a sample of what we had to work with.
Below is a sample of what we had to work with.
Take a look to hear our stories of York!
We knew the stories. We then participated in the Chalk Talk Protocol to answer the question, What feelings, descriptive words/phrases, or themes tell about York?
The images below show the process. What are all the lines? Each line represents that another learner agreed with what one of their classmates wrote.
The images below show the process. What are all the lines? Each line represents that another learner agreed with what one of their classmates wrote.
Learning About Lewis Miller
The Mrs. Landis came to our classroom to talk about Lewis Miller. In the 1800's he collected stories in our community. He painted and wrote about everyday happenings. Without him, we would not have such a rich understanding of what was happening in York at that time.
Revisiting Our "Chalk Talk" Protocol
We looked at the ideas we had written down when doing the Chalk Talk protocol. We thought about what ideas stood out to us in thinking about our community and its history. The themes and thoughts below emerged from our conversation.
We checked to make sure that we had evidence to support our ideas.
Making The Art Connection
We looked at the themes that emerged from our Chalk Talk activity and participated in a Two Minute Sketch. We set the timer for two minutes and were given only one direction. What would this look like in a work of art? Sketch it.
Our first drawings were concrete examples. For example, an apple was drawn to represent York Imperial apples, a car with 6 wheels was drawn to represent a six-wheeled car made in York. The second time this activity was done, symbols were used more. For example, a wrench was drawn to represent the York Plan The third time, lines and shapes and colors were used to represent York.
Our first drawings were concrete examples. For example, an apple was drawn to represent York Imperial apples, a car with 6 wheels was drawn to represent a six-wheeled car made in York. The second time this activity was done, symbols were used more. For example, a wrench was drawn to represent the York Plan The third time, lines and shapes and colors were used to represent York.
Speaking With An Artist
Miss Kate, President of the York Art Association spoke with us about art. She gave us lots of great information about color, perspective, placement of the subject, and looked at our rough sketches and shared possibilities for further developing them.
We are going to take what she said and use that to create our pieces of art, which will be shown at an exhibit at the York Art Association.
The notes from her talk are below.
We are going to take what she said and use that to create our pieces of art, which will be shown at an exhibit at the York Art Association.
The notes from her talk are below.
Art & Writing Connection
We began our pieces keeping in mind what Miss Kate shared with us. We kept in mind our sketches that we completed. We kept in mind the history of our community and the big ideas that embodied this history.
As we developed our art work, we developed our writing around it using this organizer.
Gallery Opening
All of our artwork and writing can be found here.
Our artwork was submitted to be shown at the Youth Exhibit at the York Art Association. The pictures below were taken at the opening reception.
Our artwork was submitted to be shown at the Youth Exhibit at the York Art Association. The pictures below were taken at the opening reception.