ing ring of designs. They had fun trying to remember how to work with
northeast, southeast, southwest, and
northwest as well, watching the complexity of their designs grow as they
moved outward from the center.
ings and how they used experiences
from projects earlier in the year as
inspiration for this project.
Third Grade
For third-graders, who would also
be stamp printing, there were many
options to consider. After we talked
about pattern, bilateral symme-
try, and radial
designs, they
were free to
choose their own
direction for their
designs.
Fifth and Sixth Grade
For the fifth- and sixth-graders, my
plan was to use this project to intro-
duce them to the silkscreen process.
In each grade, each student practiced
cutting designs from small squares of
wax paper that I then used to create
the composite designs. I used double-
sided tape to
attach the small
designs to my
screen. Then we
set up the produc-
tion line with the
fifth-grade class
to screen all their bags. For the sixth-graders, I created two designs from
their wax paper stencils, which we
screened on two different days, giving
them a different design on each side
of their bag.
that parents are getting compliments
about the beautifully designed bags
while grocery shopping.
In each homeroom, students kept
track for a week to see how many
times their family used the newly
decorated bags or another reusable
bag instead of paper or plastic. The
results were tallied on a chart in the
science room. The grand total for the
first week was 1200 bags. We were
quite pleased with the success of this
project.
I talked with each grade
about the advantages of
using reusable bags rather
than paper or plastic bags.
Barbara Downing Owen teaches art at
Tenacre Country Day School in Wellesley,
Massachusetts. barbara_owen@tena-crecds.net
Fourth Grade
Fourth-graders loved several drawing
projects this year, including some
designs I called doodle drawings, and
a project creating detailed drawings
of an imaginary cityscape. Their
request was that they draw on their
bags using permanent markers, starting with black to plan their designs.
Most of them chose to add color to
their design before they were willing
to call their work completed. Again,
it was interesting to
see the v
in their ariety
draw -
Students use visual structures and
functions of art to communicate
ideas.
www.tenacrecds.net/~bowen/art-classwebsite/ index.htm
Results
I photographed each bag/design for
our Art News Page on my school w eb-
site, as well as photos for the scien ce
department before allowing stude nts
to take the bags
home. I”ve heard
Maggie McCarthy, grade two.
Silkscreen design, grade six.
