Heritage Deer

Art 207-08, Group 2
Claribel Diaz, Angelee Acebo, Terry Hennessy, Teresa Evans, Ashley Dodds

Objectives:

• The students will learn the colors of different flags of the world.
• The students will learn how to trace their hands and foot.
• The students will learn to create a deer using body parts.

Student Materials:

1. 11x14 white paper
2. Pencil
3. Red Pom Pom
4. Beady eyes
5. Assorted color crayons
6. Assorted markers

Teacher Materials:

1. Previous students artwork
2. Poster of flags of the world
3. Poster of the world
4. Poster of the steps of the project

Vocabulary:

• Heritage
• Deer
• Country
• Flag

Procedure:

1. Introduction: Discuss briefly about cultural background
2. Take one shoe off
3. Trace foot on 11x14 paper
4. Trace one has as antler
5. Trace other hand as other antler on the deer
6. Select the colors of your flag
7. Decorate your deer with either crayons or markers to look like your flag
8. Put on eyes and nose to make deer face
9. Conclusion: Hang up student art work and discuss with the class

Comments/Suggestions:

This project could be adapted to holidays as was shown with the sweatshirt. You can put it sweatshirts, shirts and use different types of paint to make the deer stand out more. This project is most popular during Christmas, since most people associate the deer with Christmas.

Summary of the artistic development in the kindergarten age group:

Children come into this world with the desire to draw, or we might say that they have the impulse for art in their genetic fuel. Children are intrinsically motivated in kindergarten through the third grade, and their continual searching, experimenting and questioning are striking evidence of this fact.

To effectively teach elementary art, a teacher needs to know how children develop in their art production. There are sequential stages of a child’s artistic growth in creating visual images in order to understand and assist in the child’s development. Kindergarteners are in the second stage: Making Symbols (four to eight years of age)

• Head/feet: closed shapes with lines; radical configurations.
• Body usually made up of geometric shapes.
• Works largely form memory rather than direct observation.
• Shows emotionally and physically significant concepts, exaggeration or omission of body part, concentrations of details on important parts.
• Little or not overlapping.
• Random placement of items in picture space.
• Simple baseline appears. Deviations: bent, multiple, mixture of plan elevation, x-ray, and fold-over.

The purpose for the cultural/historical part of the Heritage Deer is for the students to gain an understanding of their own heritage and culture (Herberholz and Herberholz p.156). When children are exposed to their own cultural identity they begin to gain a perspective of differences and similarities in themselves and others; thus their worldview is expanded. Once children recognize that the world they live in is made up of many different types of beliefs and customs they begin to become more receptive about differences in others. The Heritage Deer is our way of communicating to the students that they too are part of a heritage and that it is okay to share their cultural beliefs with others.

As the students create their Heritage Deer we will focus on the concept of where they live right now and where their national origin originated (Herberholz and Herberholz p. 182). We will also cover a brief introduction to California history by explaining the culture of the Native Americans and what the San Joaquin Valley was like previous to Spanish and European settlers, thus the metaphor of the Deer (the Thule Deer lived in the San Joaquin Valley and was a common sight during that time). Hopefully the students will realize that the people that live in their community directly influence the culture in which they live, as do they (Herberholz and Herberholz p. 200-203).

While the students create their Heritage Deer the focus will be on the idea of culture and heritage as well as giving the students a sense of their present existence and a sense for their past. Once this concept is understood the students will begin to understand that everyone is unique and deserves to be recognized.

Resources:

Herberholz, D., and B. Herberholz. 2002.

Artworks for Elementary Teachers: Developing Artistic and Perceptual Awareness.

Ninth Edition. McGraw-Hill, New York, NY.

228, 102-104 pp.

The idea was borrowed from:
Kalkowski, K.

Head Teacher and Co-Director Chico Oaks Preschool.

Chico, California.

5 December 2000.

Feedback:

The class seemed to like our activity. Our classmates said things like: it was a clever idea, it’s cool to see where everyone is from, absolutely great, quick and fun, the ease was age appropriate, nice organization, good demo, good introduction, nice visuals and they liked that we posted the steps of the project. The class also felt that this project could be made into a bigger assignment for the children. In that they could make a “class deer” and combine all their different heritages. There were also suggestions that we could involve the parents in discussing with their kids about their different heritages and cultures. The only concern mentioned was that it might be above the understanding of kindergartners. But, as the class discussed, it’s good to start young teaching children who they are and where they come from. It was also brought up that it’s a good way to teach such young children about their right hand and left hand. Plus, adding a picture of the student to further enhance their individualism would be a nice touch. We were pleased with the feedback from our peers.