Omega Artspace Slideshow

Week 16 and 17

Our last two weeks of ArtSpace allowed us to explore our "Lost at Sea" game a bit further, allowing us to explore concepts of how societies function. Remaining in the teams from the previous week, our three "tribes" found themselves stranded on an uncharted island in the ocean and responsible for building a society. Each team elected a chief, who then chose a second-in-command. The remaining members of each tribe divided themselves into jobs. Cartographers were responsible for making maps of the island (designing the island, its geology, topography, etc.). Hunters searched for food (designing animals, plants and other wildlife that inhabited the island; determing what was safe, dangerous or medicinal). Architects designed shelters using materials found on the island. The chief and second-in-command selected a name for the island and tribe as well as a respresentative flag.

Once each subgroup had settled and agreed upon designs and information for their topic, they rejoined their tribe to share what they "discovered (created)." Then, given an 8-by-4 sheet of butcher paper, each tribe designed a banner-brochure-guide for their island, including all the information gathered from the individualized groups. Our final day (Tuesday) was each tribe's day to present their islands to the class and to convince the instructors why they should be rescued! Our winners were the Coco Tribe from Coco Island.

The students at Omega also presented the instructors with a speech, a song and two large posterboards with signatures of every student and pictures from our ASU field trip. Omega was very thankful for the opportunity to participate in ArtSpace and many students expressed their interest to continue next year!

Week 15

This week, we explored non-standard musical notation through visual scores. Modern music notation can only be read by those who are trained to read it, so we decided to look at other ways to write down music that could be interpreted by anyone. In groups of 2, 3 and 4, the students created visual scores with a series of colored lines. The height of the line on the paper determined its pitch (higher = irising pitch, lower = dropping pitch) while the thickness determined its volume (thin = soft, thick = loud). After creating the scores and choosing sounds to represent the different lines, each group performed their visual score.

 

On Thursday we did an activity called "Lost at Sea." With a list of 14 items, we broke into three large groups with the goal of ranking these 14 items in order of greatest importance to least importance. Then, using a specific team color, each group made these 14 objects and placed them around the room. This allowed us to see each team's ranks just by looking at the colors and objects. The list of 14 was compiled and ranked by survival experts - some of the answers were very different than we had expected!

Week 13

We had a bit of time off from ArtSpace during the week of April 13-17 for Omega's Spring Break. On Tuesday, April 21st, we jumped right back in to art activities with a two-day project based on "Architecture Parlante." The word "parler" is French and means "to speak" - Architecture Parlante is architecture that speaks. Buildings designed in this style reflect the building's function. A library might be shaped like a book, or a shoe store may be shaped like a shoe. Using cut-out shapes of construction paper, the students designed their own buildings inspired by everyday objects. We saw everything from donuts to chocolate bunnies, violins to running shoes, teddy bears, and even nachos!

On Friday the students took a field trip to the Arizona State University campus where they were given a tour of the art museum and the campus architecture. The museum featured an interactive sound installation where students could touch and manipulate different sculptures, allowing them to become participants in the exhibit.

Week 12

This past week, we worked on creating three-dimensional "location cubes." Using a piece of construction paper, the students created six 6-inch-by-6-inch boxes on both sides of the paper. Next, each student selected a location - beach, desert, mountains, farm, etc. etc. - that they wanted as the basis of their outer cube design. Then, on the opposite side of the paper, the students chose a building or place one would find in that location (beach = hut, city = office building, farm = barn, etc. etc.) and designed an interior room. Finally, after decorating both sides, we folded the cubes together and fastened them with glue. The result was a cube with a landscape design on the outside and an interior room/building design on the inside.

Thursday was Omega's last class day before their Spring Break, so we had a game day. Our first game was "Human Knot" - a problem-solving game we had played the previous class - where a group of students clasps hands with two other people from their group, creating a large tangle of arms. The object was to untangle your group's knot without letting go of each others' hands. We also played reverse musical chairs, another problem solving game. Like regular musical chairs, each time the music stops, a chair is removed from the circle, but a team member is not eliminated. The goal is to keep the entire group's feet off the floor, even when there may be only one chair left.

Next week, on Friday April 24th, the ArtSpace group will be taking a field trip to Arizona State University to visit the art museum and look at some of the campus architecture.

Week 11 - Omega Artspace

This week in Omega ArtSpace, the students participated in one individual activity and one group activity. On Tuesday, we continued on the topic of optical illusions from earlier lessons and created flip books. We created the books by dividing up pieces of white construction paper and fastening them with a stapler, then using pencils, colored pencils and markers to draw a series of images. Each image was changed just slightly from the one preceding it to give the illusion of movement once the pages were flipped.

On Thursday, the students were given a problem solving task. What would you do if your alarm clock was broken? What sort of a machine or device could you set around your room or house to help wake you up without an alarm? We broke into groups of 2 or 3 to try and develop Rube Goldberg-esque devices that would get us out of bed. Rube Goldberg was an American cartoonist famous for his cartoon drawings of complex machines that accomplish simple tasks - much like the game 'Mouse Trap' is designed.

We are currently in the process of getting ready to paint a mural on one of the outside walls of the Omega school! We've been working with Mike, our guest graffiti artist, and should hopefully be starting soon! Also coming up this month is our field trip to the Arizona State University Art Museum.

On Thursday, the students were given a problem solving task. What would you do if your alarm clock was broken? What sort of a machine or device could you set around your room or house to help wake you up without an alarm? We broke into groups of 2 or 3 to try and develop Rube Goldberg-esque devices that would get us out of bed. Rube Goldberg was an American cartoonist famous for his cartoon drawings of complex machines that accomplish simple tasks - much like the game 'Mouse Trap' is designed.

We are currently in the process of getting ready to paint a mural on one of the outside walls of the Omega school! We've been working with Mike, our guest graffiti artist, and should hopefully be starting soon! Also coming up this month is our field trip to the Arizona State University Art Museum.

Week 10 - Omega Artspace

3-Dimensional Wire Sculpting

The students were given the chance to draw 3-Dimensionally using only a piece of wire. They were ask to describe their day or weekend using only the given wire, making it one continuous line drawing. Many chose to make something they saw over the weekend.

Week 9 - Omega Artspace

This week at Omega we brought in a visitor, Mike, a local Graffiti artist. Mike showed the kids some new ways for them to write, draw, and color their names. Kids were very enthuisiastic to see his skills as he demonstrated on the board. He also took the time to write each of their names, (40 students!) in graffiti style lettering, giving them a chance to copy it. 

On Thursday, Omega Artspace had a free for all paint day, and the kids ran with it. With large paper rolled out across the floor, each student had their own space to explore and create their own masterpieces. They used sponges, brushes, paper towels, and of course their hands to paint. It was messy and fun... good thing the paint was washable!

Week 8 - Omega Artspace

Omega has been busy with some new creative projects that have begun to prepare the students for our large project in the future. Recently we had groups create banners for hanging around Omega. They brainstormed about art, school, hard work, and other messages they wanted to get out. Using construction paper they were able to make very nice, colorful banners. 

Omega Photo Slideshow

Week 5&6 - Omega Artspace

During our fifth week of ArtSpace, we connected our earlier Laban movement lessons to a discussion of perspective and optical illusions. The students then created their own optical illusions using a checkerboard pattern and their names. After creating the outline of a checkerboard, the students wrote their names using bubble lettering, then proceeded to fill in the checkerboard with two different colors, but leaving their names blank. Afterwards, they colored in the letters of their name using the opposite color of the box each letter passed through. We spent the following meeting continuing our work on the illusions.

Our Tuesday class meeting was the only one of this past week due to parent-teacher conferences. We used this time finish up any projects that had been left undone: treasure maps, "day in the life" storyboards and the checkerboard optical illusions. Next week, on March 3rd, we will be hanging up all of the projects that have been completed for an open house, where all parents can come in and view what their children have accomplished in the first five weeks of ArtSpace. We hope to see you there!

Week 4 - Omega Artspace

Week 4 - Feb 10,12

This week at Artspace did a lesson based on movement and one based on art creativity. We introduced a couple songs to get the kids going, including Singing in the Rain and the Shark Song.

The movement lesson stems from the theory of movement analysis by Rudolf Laban. We taught the kids various movements and had them re-enact them in new situations. We followed it up with a game called the Human Machine, where kids had to work together to create a machine using only their bodies. 

For our art creativity lesson we gave the students a paper and had them draw a shape and pass the paper to the next person. Once we had four shapes drawn the students were challenged to create “a day in the life of” story, using the shapes drawn by others in their own drawing. They then took turns presenting their story to the class. They were very creative in their drawing and storytelling and did a great job.

Week 3 - Omega Artspace

This week at ArtSpace, we went on a pirate adventure that took us out of the classroom and around the Omega campus, using movement and the students' imaginations to pass obstacles in search for treasure - the finished name tags! The name tags the students during the first ArtSpace meeting have been laminated, hole punched, and have had a lanyard attached, allowing me and Adam to easily identify each student.

Following the adventure, the students began working on treasure maps that showed our journey. We spent the remainder of Tuesday's class designing the maps in pencil, while Thursday's class was spent coloring the maps. We also introduced a new game - Bird, Beast, Fish - which is a team-based game very similar to charades.


Scott and some students with their finished maps


More treasure maps

Week 2 - Omega Artspace

1-27 Day 2

Today at Omega Charter the Artspace class did an activity about senses and place. We first introduced the five senses:

See, Hear, Taste, Smell, Touch

We then used our theme of Place to categorize the kinds of things our senses help us to experience. In small groups they would draw images for a specific sense that relate to a place we named. Examples of places include Baseball game, Zoo, Beach, Farm, and Restaurant. The group would then rotate and draw for a new sense and new place. The kids did a great job and the resulting collages were very colorful and interesting.

Week 1 - Omega ArtSpace

1-22 Day 1

Hello Omega Artspace! This message is from Adam & Scott, the ArtSpace assistants at Omega. It was great to see all the smiling faces on the first day of ArtSpace. We had a chance to introduce ourselves so all the children could learn more about us. We also introduced our theme for ArtSpace…

-- PLACE --

We have many fun and interesting activities planned that will deal with PLACE. We hope the children will gain a new outlook on art and what it has to offer. For our first day, we began to learn our students names by playing a name game. The students then designed their own ArtSpace VIP passes that will serve as their name tags for the program. We also played some games, like "AS IF," a creative movement activity in which the students move in certain ways ("move as if you are...").

We look forward to a fun and rewarding ArtSpace experience and hope the same for all involved. Keep bringing smiling faces and open minds and we will take care of the rest.

Adam & Scott


Students playing the name game - each student would say their name and something they like that begins with the same letter as their first name (for example "I'm Scott and I like to swim").


Students designing ArtSpace VIP passes to serve as nametags.