PROJECT: BIRDS IN MOTION

TEACHER: MILLIE EICHLER

SCHOOL: LAFOURCHE PARISH TAG PROGRAM

CONTENT: Science, Visual Art, Dance

GRADE LEVELS: Elementary (2nd –- 5th)

OBJECTIVES:

• discuss the use of pose, movement and gesture in artwork
• create a “Movement Piece” exploring birds in space
• complete several gesture drawings of a model doing bird movements
• compose a flip-booklet of a figure in motion

TIME: One 60-minute class period

MATERIALS:

1. brown butcher paper
2. white and/or black chalk
3. paper cut into 2” x 2” squares
4. black felt pen
5. Monkeys and Birds in Trees by Sesshu Toyo
6. Louisiana Birds by John Audobon
7. Birds of the Gulf Coast by William Fontenot
8. CD: Beethoven’s 6th Symphony

ACTIVITY:

History: Birds and their habitats are rare and precious things that are in danger from all sorts of external forces (nature, man). Discuss different ways nature and man can and have harmed animals and their way of life.

Vocabulary:
pose - a way of holding the body in a certain position
gesture drawing - a drawing done quickly to capture movement
movement –- a principle of design: combination of elements (line, shape, repetition) to produce the illusion of action

Steps:
1. Explain to students that they will create the illusion of a moving figure three different ways.
a dance of bird movements.
a series of gesture drawings that capture movement.
a flip booklet of figure movements.

2. Explain “gesture drawing”:
A quick movement - the artist creates gesture drawings by using quick free-flowing and overlapping lines while leaving out details.
Lines can be heavy, thin, light, dark, curvy and straight…

3. Explain how to achieve the illusion of movement in art
Discuss the principle of movement in art and dance (read definition of movement)
Present several books of birds in movement. Discuss descriptive words to describe head, wings and leg movements. Discuss line, shape, and repetition of movements. Examples: the body crouching, flapping, jumping, swaying, bobbing; arms bent, reaching.
Observe several artists’ works and discuss how they achieve the illusion of movement.

4. Break students into pairs. Describe and demonstrate movements in space that imitate an animal. Have each team compose a “Movement Piece” of animal movements in their environment before and during a storm while listening to Beethoven's 5th Symphony. (About 5 minutes in length or at least 7 to 10 different movements using different levels of space and different body parts.)

5. Distribute butcher paper and crayons. Direct each student to do quick one-minute sketches of his/her model/dancer partner as he/she performs. Each student will take a turn quick sketching (gesture drawing) with white or black chalk while his/her partner is slowly doing the animal movements to music and holding a pose every time the teacher stops the music. (Stress the importance of drawing across the paper using the entire page with free and quick strokes.)

6. Direct the models/dancers to begin their movements with the music, and to freeze their pose for a minute when the music stops. Play then stop the music about 7 to 10 times. Next, have the artist and the model switch places.

When all students have completed their gesture drawings and performed their “Movement Pieces,” lead a discussion of why and how they created movement. (curved lines, repetition…)

Explain to students that you want them each to create a flip booklet depicting their animal in motion.

Distribute 2” x 2” papers and a black felt pen Have each student create their own moving animal by applying a different pose onto each square. Staple the papers together into a booklet and have them flip through quickly to see their animal move.

EVALUATION/ASSESSMENT:

Have students discuss where and how a sense of movement was created in their drawings.

GRADE LEVEL EXPECTATIONS AND STANDARDS/BENCHMARKS:
Louisiana Elementary Science GLEs:
Life ScienceScience:
LS-E-A3: Compare structures (parts of the body) in a variety of animals

National Standards for Arts Education:
Dance:
1 Identifying and demonstrating movement elements and skills in performing dance
7 Making connections between dance and other disciplines.

Visual Arts:
1 Understanding and applying media, techniques and processes.
6 Making connections between visual arts and other disciplines

TEACHER'S REFLECTION:

I believe this a great way to encourage children to think of movement from more than one perspective. It causes them to be keenly aware of what causes movement and the illusion of movement. The children really enjoyed acting like birds and drawing each other. I actually could have used more time just on those two activities. I find the students had a hard time with looseness in the gesture drawing activity, so it might be helpful to have them practice drawing stick figures before the exercise.
This lesson could go well as an addition to any animal study to gain more awareness of the animals’ body parts and how it moves.

Click Here to Download the Video for this project

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