father's day art

It's the middle of June and there are but 8 school days remaining in the year. Where have the last ten months gone? We made Father's Day cards in class today. I used an activity from a book called Discovering Great Artists by MaryAnn Kohl and Kim Solga. Having this book on the shelf is like having a very reliable starter in a rotation. Visual arts are not my strong suit, which makes the book's user-friendliness a real draw. Today's task involved creating a Surimono Greeting in the style of Katsushika Hokusai, a Japanese artist from the 1700s and 1800s. A Surimono Greetings is a sort of boardered card with patterned boxes on the upper and lower horizonal frames and identical designs on the vertical frames. I try to keep art tasks as open-ended as I can so the kids can explore the format in their own ways (and go for broke if they wish). It usually pays off, as many kids end up creating something that greatly exceeds my demonstration pieces. Today was a bit of deja vu for us because I used another task from the very same activity book to foster a Triptych Panel creation for Mother's Day (in the style of Jan van Eyck, who worked in the 1400s). While on my way out at the end of the day I noticed that some of the kids had forgotten their Surimono Greeting cards on their desks (as they finish Fridays in another room). Yikes! I guess some dads will be getting a late Father's Day card/art piece this year.