3rd grade

This past week I taught the third-graders about Stuart Davis, considered somewhat of a pioneer in 20th century American art.  You can’t talk about Stuart Davis without mentioning the influence jazz music had on his art.  So, naturally, one must play jazz music while the students create.

I started with a brief biographical sketch about Stuart Davis.  We defined “urban landscape”, and discussed some of the features one might find in the city.  We then talked about the characteristics of jazz music-the way it takes original melodies and tweaks the chords and rhythms just so to create a distinctive sound.  I invited them to sing “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” with me (in its original form) and then played a jazz version of it to give the kids a better idea of jazz.

Understanding jazz helped them better see how Stuart Davis depicted real-life objects/places in abstract ways.

I instructed the students to think of a familiar place: their childhood home, a grandparent’s house, a place they’ve visited.  I then asked them to think of a few notable characteristics of that place and list them on a piece of paper.  They then used paper to create a landscape of their chosen subject.

We used Yellowstone as an example.  Those familiar with Yellowstone listed the following things they could depict in a “Yellowstone landscape”: bison, geysers, mountains, rivers, a fox, tents, cameras.

I created the following  Powerpoint as a guideline for the lesson.