The Return of the Texture Fauves

 I've been looking through my blog stats, and I want to, from time to time, bring back some stuff from a few old posts that never got many views on their first runs, because I think they deserve a 2nd chance!  So these images were originally posted here, in December 2010.

My 2nd grade students had been learning about Matisse and fauvism, had done a Matisse goldfish bowl painting project, and knew that the word 'fauve' means 'wild beast'. We also had previously done some work with textures, so they knew the meaning of the word.  So to use up some junk accumulating in the art room, the kids created these 'texture fauves' - wild beasts or creatures made out of various textural materials, mostly recyclable.  We had fabric scraps, pieces of foam, ribbon, lace, corrugated cardboard scraps, pompoms, feathers, doilies, toothpicks, wood shapes, and of course some wiggle eyes just for fun.

I purposely showed them NO examples, so they would use their own imaginations and creative thinking to solve the challenge.  They were given scissors, bottles of Elmer's Glue-All, and a piece of scrap mat board each for background, and I had all the assorted junk materials arranged on my counter-top. 

 

While most kids used lots of materials, I especially love the simplicity of this amazing shark (above) cut from just a few scraps of foam!  Bravo!

 Don't you love the written explanation on this one (above)?

 The kids were given the option of using construction paper crayons to alter the negative space, as you can see on the piece below in particular. 

  Straight from my prior post, these were the only rules/guidelines that were given:

1. Nothing sticking up off the board (the artwork should fit in the drying rack).
2. No blood or weapons.
3. You had to be able to tell it was a beast or creature.
4. Students could only take one thing from the selection at a time, and had to return stuff the same way it was found (ribbon rolled up, feather bucket closed, etc).
5. Everything had to be glued down by counting to at least 10.

Since the students had to get up from their seats numerous times to retrieve materials, I had them take their scissors with them (to cut off a piece of ribbon, for example, rather than taking all the ribbon to their tables).  So we practiced the 'scissor rap', complete with hand gestures and sassy attitudes:  "Points down, hands around, points down, hand around!" 

I hope you have enjoyed this repeat performance!