Art & Poetry 2.4: Pre-K/K & Lower Elementary

 Dear families,

I remembered to start off our class with our Elements of Art Chant: "Line, shape, form, color, texture, value, space: the elements of art can make things great!" After a brief review of what we have been learning (poetry, art, Jacob Lawrence, words), we read not one, not two, but THREE books! The first was The Magic of Letters, by Tony Johnston and Wendell Minor; this book teaches about the "elements" of poetry, which are letters that can be combined into really cool words. 

I emphasized that Jacob Lawrence felt strongly about creating art about the people of America, especially the folks he lived around in his community of Harlem, and the people of historic moments that meant a lot to him, with themes of struggle, hope, and perseverance in overcoming adversity. He created a series of sixty paintings called The Great Migration, which we will discuss more next time. I initially told the students that he didn't write poetry and only created visual art, but after looking more closely at this series (which we only mentioned in passing today), it appears that the titles or descriptions of each of the sixty paintings do, in fact, sound poetry-like! So I'll talk about that next week.

In the spirit of Jacob Lawrence making art about America, we read our second book, called We Came to America, by Faith Ringgold. I'm attaching a picture of the poem from the book. I encouraged our students to think about their own lives and what they may know of their families, and consider what America means to them, just like Jacob Lawrence did. 

Our third book was I Am America, by Charles R. Smith Jr. It has beautiful photographs of children and is written in a poetic style with sentences that start with "I am", like "I am cheeks freckled the color of a rose", "I am candy cane sticks", and "I am a new branch sprouting in my majestic family tree". We collaboratively wrote a poem about ourselves in that same vein! Each student contributed at least one phrase, and some said two phrases. Then each child created a self-portrait in a setting that they liked, on separate pieces of paper. I wrote their specific phrase they came up with on the back of their picture, with the unifying line "I am America"; check in their backpacks for their artwork!

Jacob Lawrence loved to tell stories through his art, which is why he often painted artwork as part of a series. I feel like our poem today really tells an interesting, awesome story of how our students view themselves!

I AM AMERICA, by the Lower Elementary Class

I am me.

I am jeans.

I am Kirby from Kirby Clash.

I am strawberry ice cream.

I am the world.

I am glad I'm here.

I am a soccer ball.

I am glad I'm alive and breathing.

I am a ballerina.

I am a cup of coffee with cream.

I am hungry for steak.

I am Frindle Nick.

I am in my mask.

I am a hamster.

I am all of us together.

I am America.

Have a great week,

-Alyssa