Art Class - Island Nations

A quick overview of art class: I usually use a 3-part approach to teaching art-

1) Observation Skills

2) Multiple Media

3) Design and Critical Thinking

Previously, we had finished 2 projects: for one project the students had to build a small garden from cardboard and paper, and for the other they drew maps of islands including 4 parts of a map.

For the Island Nation project, each tribe of students got a cardboard box top on which they had to build 7 buildings with limited resources. Each tribe needed: a government building, residences, food supply, roads, a park or forest, a seaport or airport, and the tallest building they could

make.

On day 3 of this project, we 'ran out of resources' and only had paper left as a building material.

Within each tribe, students took on the roles of the President, Vice President, Building Master, Resource Master, and Trading Captain. When students learned and used ideas from each others' islands, or when a tribe made a particularly interesting building or structure, they were rewarded with special building materials, such as straws.