Dec. 31, 2008: Honoring Nature With Art

The Mini Page is a syndicated, four-page tabloid written for young children found each Wednesday in the Rocky Mountain News. This issue of The Mini Page is available through the eEdition Archive to registered eEdition subscribers. Click here to learn about subscribing to the eEdition at no cost to you (for Colorado teachers).

Activities:

1. Find an interesting item in nature somewhere near where you live. Use the warm and cool colors of Georgia O'Keeffe to draw your personal image of the item.

2. See how well you could supply young artists and photographers. Pretend you have $500 to spend. Find painting supplies or cameras and photography supplies in newspaper ads. List each item and its price on a piece of paper. How much can you buy for $500?

3. Plan a series of art adventures in your community. Look in the arts/entertainment section or community calendar section of your newspaper. Find an art gallery or exhibit that features (a) paintings, (b) sculptures, (c) photography, and (d) antiques or collectibles.

4. Analyze a color photograph in your newspaper. What can you say about the effect of the colors in the photo? The subject? The placement of people and places? What makes this a good photograph?

5. Use resource books and the Internet to learn more about Georgia O'Keeffe or Ansel Adams. Use these questions to guide your research: Where was the artist born? When did she/he first become interested in art and nature? Where did she/he study? What did critics say of the artist's early work? When did the public and critics accept the artist's work? Write a paragraph biography of the artist..

This week's standards:

• Students identify works of art as belonging to particular cultures, times and places. (Visual Arts)
• Students understand how an artist¹s experiences influence the development of specific artworks. (Visual Arts)
  
  

(standards by Dr. Sherrye D. Garrett, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi)