Native American Personal Portraits

Hello!
It's another year in Arts Bridge! Last year I worked with a first grade class and it was fantastic! This time around I get to work with a 4th grade class! So exciting!

Today for the first lesson I wanted to get to know the students. First I introduced myself and different kinds of projects that I have created and have enjoyed. The students loved learning about what I like to do.

Next I knew that they had learned about Native Americans so I wanted to revisit their previous knowledge of Native Americans that were native to Utah. The two tribes that I talked about were the Utes ("Yoot") and the Navajos. We talked about their different cultural looks that were different than our own looks through photographs, and native american artists. Characteristics like braided hair, shoes they wore, bone jewelry, lots of color on their clothes, and of course feathers. I found some beautiful art work by David Johns, R.C. Gorman, Hastiin Klah and Clara Sherman that we talked about what they liked and disliked about the paintings I presented. We also talked about the patterns that they would have on their clothing and what kinds of clothing they wore. On the last slide I was only able to find a broad interpretation of what different colors meant for Native Americans. They really joined the idea of colors having particular meanings.

Here is the link to my presentation:
http://prezi.com/j98kpakbn9ii/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

After having a fantastic, interesting conversation about Native Americans and art I gave them the project to complete.

I told them that I wanted to get to know and to learn about them. The constraints I gave them was to create a portrait of themselves as if they were a Native American. I told them they could use color pencils, crayons, markers and construction paper. They thought about what colors to use to mean certain things and different characteristics they would be like if they were a Native American from Utah.

This project was super fun and I enjoyed going around to listen to them and discover their little personalities!

These kids are so smart and interesting! I loved working with them!