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A couple of months ago our computer teacher and a parent (a wealthy
computerguy and financial backer of our efforts at Net education), convinced
the organizers of the BIG game to name us the official SuperBowl elementary
school Web site. This has caused no end of excitement for the kids and their
families. Almost every teacher has put together some sort of project for their
students to put onto the school's Web pages. Many include artwork, but 4th
grade art students created an art gallery on the football theme.
The challenge I put to put to these kids was to make drawings which depict
football players doing interesting things with cactuses-- famously native to
our desert area. The children prepared for their work both by studying how to
draw the human figure, and by looking critically and admiringly at ink
drawings by Reg Manning, who's most famous for having designed the character
"Reddy Kilowatt." He was an AZ newspaper cartoonist for over 50 years, who
won a Pulitzer Prize for his work. Reg Manning's humorous illustrations for
the book,What Kinda Cactus Izzat? --first published by J.J. Augustin, NY, in
1941-- inspired many of the ways in which these Sonoran Sky students
anthropomorphised (humanized) cactus plants.
Whether before, during or after the game, I hope you'll take a look at Sonoran
Sky Elementary's site at http://www.aristotle.com
See the Super Bowl stuff in the "KidKiXXX" section, but have a look at the
still-primitive Art section in the "Directory" too!
I'm excited about using this new means to exhibiting the work-- for the
students' sake and also for our profession.