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Third graders have been learning about natural resources and how their availability affects societies. This is a very complicated concept for third-grade minds!
To help make the idea a little more concrete, we looked at the artist Andy Goldsworthy. Goldsworthy's art is made from items he finds in nature. He gains his inspiration from the materials that are around him. In the winter, he may decide to use icicles to make a sculpture, or he might make a design with colored leaves in the fall. He could use flower petals in spring, or river rocks in summertime. I wanted students to understand that the materials he chooses is dependent on their availability- just like societies are limited to using resources that are available to them. Students watched a short video about Goldsworthy's work and then we had a class discussion about his designs. The students were fascinated by the idea that his work was temporary- you couldn't "keep" it! This lead to a great discussion of WHY artists make art- it's not always about the end result, sometimes we make art just for the process of making it! Next students got to make their own nature designs! I put out baskets of natural supplies like leaves, bark, rocks, flower petals, and sticks, and encouraged them to explore the materials any way they wished. Many students chose to make radial designs. They could work in teams or individually, and used iPads to photograph their work. I had planned for this to be a one-week-only experience, but every single class requested to do this the next week, too! So we did!
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