Tolerance Banners

According to NaBloPoMo, this months blogging them is art. So, what better inspiration to share this awesome art project that we did in my homeroom class to kick off the year. You might remember that I attended the Basic Art Institute in Juneau this summer, where we learned how to incorporate the arts into our classroom. I came home with many ideas and a ton of inspiration. Most of my ideas revolved around my homeroom class. Our homeroom class is a time for working with kids on positive actions and behavior. It is a time for those students to have one adult that they can connect with on a daily basis. This seemed to me to be the most fitting place to incorporate some art into the school day.
The very first art activity that I brought in was Tolerance Banners. We did a lesson revolving around the UN's 1995 Year of Tolerance. We discussed the ideas of tolerance and looked at the 6 pieces of artwork that were commissioned by the UN in 1995. Then, we learned about the Notan Japanese papercutting method. We used this method to create our own tolerance banners. They turned out great!!! The yellow one is the one I made and the others are the students. I really liked this project because it was easy enough for everyone to be successful, but looked really cool when it was finished.