Between the two trees,
Looking up at their branches
Which one should we climb?
-Tyrone
Tyrone embellished his windblown-tree painting with a colorful
little tissue paper kite. Kites, called "tako", have been popular in Japan for
fourteen centuries. There are traditional styles associated with all the different
regions of Japan: round, square, beetle-shaped, bee-shaped, soldier-shaped...
Many Japanese kites are made for fighting, and there are hugely popular kite
fighting tournaments, but other kites are works of art. Many traditional Japanese
kites have beautiful paintings all over their hand-made rice-paper ("washi")
faces. These kites can be seen at annual festivals during the "golden week"
between April 29 and May 5.
ArtHouse provides a focal point for Language Arts projects at all grade levels from
pre-literacy through the middle grades. As shown here, ArtHouse provides a lovely
place to display short poems in an interesting, thematically appropriate context.
The students envisioned a Japanese garden in winter, and imagined viewing its
weathered trees from the perspective of the original haiku poet, Matsuo Basho, who
lived in a humble gardener's hut.
Storyboarding Definition: Every ArtHouse decoration tells its own part of
a story - that's why we call them "storyboards". Sometimes the visual artwork comes first,
and upon viewing it kids are inspired to interpret and make up their own stories. Or,
like storyboards in the film-making and advertising industries, sometimes student-made
storyboards are used as a tool for testing and developing creative ideas. Storyboards
fill the gap between brainstorming and writing. A third scenario is demonstrated here:
students wrote haiku poems and created visual artwork to aid their presentation.
ArtHouse is a great teaching aid for Language Arts - it simply makes lessons more memorable!
Visit The Haiku Poetry Page To See The Class Project Assembled
You're invited to submit art to the ArtHouse Children's Art Gallery!
Kids' Art Gallery Submission Instructions
Return To The ArtHouse Children's Art Gallery