It was in December of 1995 when I landed my first official teaching gig, granted it was only a 40% semester-long slot for a teacher cutting back her hours to finish a master’s program. I had big shoes to fill, not only was she a popular teacher but the quality of her student's work was top notch. It was a good starting point and I welcomed the competition. Now some of you might be asking "competition?" Let me illustrate, I believe that humans are naturally competitive and to have an experienced teacher in your presence will inspire you to be a better teacher and in the end it benefits the students. I understand and accept that I can always grow and become a better teacher, but being the only Art teacher at a school and the lack of professional development and/or meetings with other art teachers is like living in a vacuum. This is one of the reasons why art blogs are great; it promotes the idea of sharing.
This approach to making molas is borrowed from Ms. Jill Gartland during my six-month stint at the long-gone Baseline Middle School in Boulder, CO. I like doing this project every couple of years with middle school.
Supplies: construction paper, x-acto knives, cutting boards, white color pencil, paperclips, pencils, rulers, and paper.
Vocabulary: mola, layers, bridges, boarders, outline, negative/positive space, cutting, overlapping, lines, warm/cool colors, and shape.
|
Step 1: Use pencil and paper to design outline of an animals (lines can be used as a bridge to connect the animal to the border). Step 2: Transfer rough draft idea to the top layer of the construction paper. IMPORTANT-the student should only draw on one side of the paper even if they make an error. |
|
Step 3: Once the outline and bridges have been established, the student will use an x-acto knife to cut away the negative space. Step 4: Place the paper with the outline and bridges on a different color paper and draw different shapes or even multiple shapes within the large negative space. Cut those shapes out. |
|
Step 5: Repeat step 4 for 4-5 more layers of paper. The final sheet should not be cut. Step 6: Flip the papers over so that the sides with the pencil are not showing and glue the papers together. |
|
Working on their second layers. |
|
Removing shapes to create negative space. |
|
Making shapes to cut. |
|
Getting detailed. |
|
Hanya's |
|
Farida A's |
|
Andrea's |
|
Kawthar's |
|
Naman's |
|
Ahmed's |
|
Shady's |
Great! I do paper molas when I am teaching about the Cunas, culture. I teach Spanish in High School and this project you have shown gave me more ideas. GRACIAS :)
ReplyDeleteThis is great! Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHow long does this usually take students? I teach on block schedule (80 minutes, every other day). Thank you for sharing your work.
ReplyDeleteSorry for the delayed reply. Thank for the comment Doña. These will take 2-3 80 minutes block classes.
Delete