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Hi, I haven’t done a Wordless Wednesday in forever! What do you think of the Wordless Wednesday series? Do you like them? Not? Tell me in the comments. I’m curious. 🙂 I like them because it gives me a chance to quickly introduce some cool art to you without the pressure of doing a lot of research and spending a lot of time on it.

This artwork is from the Met Museum in NYC, and I think it is just beautiful. I love the flowing lines, delicate patterns, and analogous color palette (not to self–add this one to the color and pattern elements and principles posts!).

This artwork goes along with two others at the Met Museum, and these three artworks came from “a palace and pavilion built by Shah ‘Abbas on the garden avenue of the Chahar Bagh at Isfahan” (source: Met Museum).

You don’t often see Islamic art with people in it. I took an Islamic art class in college at The University of Texas 1,000 years ago where I learned that although we don’t see art with people in religious texts and mosques, there are many artworks and books with images of people. Even though it has people, the style of it mimics the interlacing and overlapping nature patterns and color palettes that we see in mosque architecture.

Thanks for reading! Have a great tell. Tell me what you think about this artwork and the Wordless Wednesday series in the comments. 🙂

A few months ago, I got an awesome Facebook message from a reader, Kim, who used one of my resources in such an excellent and creative way. I would like to share what she did with my post and printable 36 Views of Mount Fuji by Hokusai.

Kim runs a small Montessori homeschool preschool for ages 3-5. They had been studying Japan and the artist Hokusai when she came across my 36 Views of Mount Fuji post, and I love how she integrated it into their studies. I did the activity she came up with with my 3 and 5 year old last week, and it went really well!

Although both Kim and I did this with young kids, the below lesson would work probably all the way up to upper elementary.

Please note, this post includes Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Japanese Woodblock Prints Lesson

1. Print the pictures from the post, and laminate if possible (optional, I got a laminator for Christmas so I laminate everything).

2. Lay out the cards in rows and play the “Find Mt. Fuji Game.”  Have students find Mount Fuji in all of the pictures. My girls thought this was great fun! We also looked at the real picture of Mount Fuji taken by my sister who is currently living in Japan (also in the original post). (I found all 36 to be a bit much. You could probably print only half of these and be fine.)

3. Lay out the cards again and have the children tell you the similarities and differences using the discussion questions from the post as a guide. Kim did this as an individual work with each child, but I did it with both of my girls at the same time having them take turns (so my 5yo wouldn’t shut out the 3yo!). Have the children notice the colors, form, peacefulness, etc. We also picked out 3-4 favorites each to take with us to the table for the rest of the activity.

4. Give each child a styrofoam meat tray, styrofoam plate with the rim cut off, or a foam printing sheet, and have each child scratch a picture into the surface. The only requirement is that they have to include Mt. Fuji in their picture!

5. Make prints! Kim used ink pads in muted shades of orange, green, and blue. I used printing ink and brayers (rollers) with black printing ink. I wanted to use blue mimic the main color in the Hokusai prints, but I only had black on hand. Use tips from the “Foam Printing” section of my block printing post for help with this activity.

My daughter is currently obsessed with those collector toy videos on YouTube, so she wanted to make a video demonstrating the process. Of course, she didn’t use any of the words we talked about like printmaking and ink, but it’s adorable. 🙂

This was such a fun activity for my kids and I. Thanks for the idea Kim! 🙂

Do you have a lesson based on one of my resources that you’d like to share with Art Class Curator readers? Please share in the comments or send me a message, and you might be featured on the blog!

Art History PowerPoint – Japanese Art – Hokusai’s 36 Views of Mount Fuji

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We’re traveling today to the Marshall Islands, an island county in the Pacific ocean. The country is spread out over 1,156 individual islands near the Equator and consists of a population of over 68,000 people. You can imagine that being spread out over that many islands, you would need to develop some systems for navigating the waters and islands of the area in order to travel on the seafaring canoes built by the Marshallese.

That’s where today’s lesson comes in. I just learned about this art form recently and thought this is a perfect lesson for my 5-year-old! I would probably do this lesson with any elementary grade level. It’s great social studies and art integration.

Marshall Islands Stick Charts

The Marshallese people once did not have the traditional mechanical devices for navigating the oceans like compasses and astrolabes. In order to navigate the ocean swell patterns, the winds, and the islands, the Marshallese developed navigation stick charts made from small seashells, wooden sticks, and various parts of a coconut. The curved lines in the Marshall Islands stick chart showed the direction and flow of the ocean waves, and shells or thick crossings of the sticks represented islands.

These charts were usually personal to the person who made them. If you didn’t make the chart, you are unlikely to be able to interpret it and use it.

There are multiple types of charts as well: rebbelib, mattang or wappepe, and medo. You can read here about the difference between the types if you are curious.

They generally stopped making and using these charts after World War II when more advanced technological tools were introduced to the islands.

Marshall Islands Stick Chart Lesson Plan and Project

Please note, this post includes Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

1. Show children an example of a Marshall Islands stick chart without telling them any information about it. Use the following questions as a guide. You could also use the Artifact Analysis Worksheet from the National Archives and Records Administration as a place for them to document their observations (Click the link, and then click Artifacts). This would be a great group activity in a classroom.

• Describe the object.
• Describe the material from which this object is made.
• Describe the lines and shapes in the object.
• How do you think this object made?
• How do you think this object was used? What do you see that makes you say that?
• Who do you think used this object?
• Why was this object made?
• Draw the stick chart.

2. Tell the students that this is a Marshall Islands stick chart, a navigational tool for people who lived in the Pacific Islands. Ask students the following questions and discuss.

• Now that you know that these are maps, what do you think each line and shell represent?
• How do you think the Marshallese people used these stick charts?
• How do these stick charts compare to the maps we use?

3. Explain to the student what the curved lines and shells represent. Discuss together how the Marshallese might have used and made these for personal use.

4. Learn more about the people from the Marshall Islands. This is where you can fit in some extra information about the Marshall Islands however you want to teach it.

5. Have the students make their own stick charts using the following steps.

• Discuss what they might make a map of: their house, neighborhood, school, the way the wind blows, the way the water flows in the drains/lake/ocean, etc. It was pouring rain the day we made ours! We captured the rain falling, the rain in the drains, the red brick houses, and the green grass.
  
• Make a plan for the stick chart by sketching it on paper (optional, for older kids).
• Make the stick chart using pipe cleaners or wikki stix and sea shells or pony beads. (We used wiki stix and pony beads). If you use wiki stix, it’s best to have a piece of construction paper underneath so it is easily portable.
  

There you go! I hope you and your students enjoy this lesson! This post is a part of the Multicultural Kid Blogs Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month Blog Series and Giveaway. Scroll down for information on the series and giveaway!

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Sources:

• The British Museum, accessed 5/9/2015
• Wikipedia, accessed 5/9/2015
• The Nonist, accessed 5/9/2015

Today’s Wordless Wednesday is a really cool artwork. Look at it.

Click here for more views of this sculpture.

Awesome, yes? I know absolutely nothing about this other than when and where it is from. Remojadas was a culture near Veracruz, Mexico from around 100 to 800 C.E. Very little is known about this culture, but we have a lot of pottery from them. You can see some more examples on the Logan Museum of Anthropology’s website.

The figure has a swollen lip and eye, and I find that fascinating. I have never seen anything like this before. It’s just really neat-from the jewelry to the elaborate headdress that looks to me like an alligator to the way he is sitting.

What do you think? Do you have any ideas for how to include this in your classroom? Share your idea in the comments!