Identity Houses

Houses reflect our personal sense of identity. We fill them with functional and decorative objects that represent our sense of taste and beauty. When we dream of a house it often is a symbol of ourselves.

I read two picture books to the children:  Home by Ellis Carson, and House of Flowers, House of Stars by Bennie Montresor. Both books explore house and home with poetic text and fine illustration. I like to begin projects in this way to excite the students with amazing art and words, and to help them ease into exercising their own imaginations.

First the children used T pins, glue and cardboard to construct their houses. This was a difficult process and they helped each other to hold the cardboard while the other pinned.

 Then I gave them tempera paint to add color to their structures. I encouraged them to think of their construction as a sculpture and a painting.

Some of the children have already begun to make people and animals to go in and around their houses.