being banksy.

This week, my 5th grade rotation was interesting... Let me just say that when classes are cancelled due to illness, you meet with 2 different classes for each lesson, and groups get switched for one reason or other, it can pose lesson planning challenges.

That said, a few groups of 5th graders continued their study of analogous colors to create unity and mood in art with a project that was inspired by a stained glass painting on wood by Banksy and students from Los Angeles along with a stained glass window from Riems Cathedral in France.

We started the lesson by reviewing/introducing analogous colors. I shared the 2 pieces side by side and shared some background info about each. Then students worked in small groups to compare and contrast the two works. They documented their findings in a graphic organizer and each group shared out, so that we could create a complete list on my whiteboard of similarities and differences together. One of the cool things about creating the master list, is it reaffirms the idea that art can be read in a lot of different ways. I encouraged students to add to their personal organizers when another group shared a response that they thought was strong. (This addressed a couple ELA standards. Reading- comparing and contrasting works of similar genres. Speaking & listening- participating in collaborative discussions on grade level appropriate content.) 

The students got a kick out of seeing the graffiti element in the Banksy work. There was some interesting discussion around what the piece meant- why combine graffiti with a form that is traditionally associated with spirituality?

After the compare and contrast activity was complete, students were to create a stained glass drawing inspired by either of the source images. I encouraged them to draw anything they wanted. For the color work there were only 2 requirements- they had to only use one analogous family and they needed to fill the entire paper with color shapes, lines, and/or patterns.

The next step was to create the black frame for the stained glass. The only requirement with this step was that they must create symmetry. We talked about how, even though Banksy did something different in the window part of his painting, he still worked with a traditional composition for stained glass windows in spiritual buildings. Students made a coupe sketches on the back of their organizers and then created the black lines with oil pastels.