First week Matisse project

We still have a few weeks of summer vacation left but I have decided on the first project we will all do...except for kinder that is. This idea is straight from another awesome blogger, but I now follow so many art blogs that I cant figure out who's blog it came from!

We are going to create a giant Matisse cut paper collage mural that will hopefully cover a good portion of the main hallway.

Each table will get a 2 foot by 4 foot piece of white paper. Each student will get a sheet of painted paper (Red, Yellow, Blue and Green to each table). Each student will be responsible for drawing and cutting a LARGE organic shape from that paper.

I will then give each table a Purple shape made by me and an orange shape created by their teacher. (During planing day I will have each classroom teacher draw a large organic shape on a old folder that I will use as a template to make the classes signature shape)

My shape will unify all the parts of the mural, the teachers shape will unify the classes parts of the mural and then each student will have their unique shape in the mural. Students will put their signature on their shape.

After the students have cut out and received all their shapes they will work as a group to create a composition on their white paper and glue the shapes down. There must be some overlapping of the shapes and all parts of the shapes must be on the white paper.

6-8th grade adaptation:
I will have more time with my middle school students. For my 6-8th group each student will get 2 pieces of paper to make two shapes. I will give each group one of my purple shapes. There will be no teacher unified shape since they are mixed grade level classes.

We will talk a bit about how, just like my father has cancer and will eventually need my help at home, Matisse had cancer of the abdomen and after several surgeries was confined to a wheelchair. It was during this time that he started making his cut paper collages. As Matisse could not stand to arrange and glue down his collage pieces he had an assistant who helped him.

I will explain that I will need my students support and assistance to help the classroom run smoothly at times when I am gone or feeling sad. And just like I will ask them for support they need to be able to turn to each other for support at various times during the semester.

To imagine how Matisse worked during the years he was in a wheelchair each student will trade their shapes with other students at their table. Then as a group they will take turns being Matisse (giving directions where they want the shape to go) and the assistant (moving the shape around and gluing it down).

The next week the 6-8th grade students will help me arrange all 16 classes 6 collage pieces into one large mural. A 4 ft tall by 192 ft long mural!