The Nature of Arp Tour - 2nd grade edition

The second graders had their first tour at the beginning of the month. We had a great time exploring The Nature of Arp! Click on the blue heading above each set of pictures to read more about each tour stop and view pictures from the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade tours.

First, we met our special chaperones: GROW graduates Michala, Carolina, and Bailee, who are now big sixth graders!

PART ONE - wood reliefs

PART TWO - hybrid drawings

PART THREE - Mad Lib

*Pictures from all grade levels will be included in upcoming blog posts. The second graders get this special photo post since their tour was postponed. :)

The Nature of Arp, Part Four

The fourth and fifth grade students had a little extra time for one last stop during The Nature of Arp tour. We played a quick drawing game using a piece of paper folded into three equal sections. Students had one minute to draw whatever they wanted in the top section of the paper. At the end of the minute, they folded the paper so their drawing was hidden and passed it to the student next to them. Students had another minute to draw, now in the middle section. At the end of the minute, they refolded the paper so both drawings were hidden and passed it to the student next to them. Students then had one last minute to draw, now in the bottom section. Once all sections were filled in, students unfolded their paper to reveal how all the parts came together to make one drawing!

4th grade

5th grade 

4th grade

5th grade

The Big Reveal!!

4th grade

5th grade

4th grade

4th grade

5th grade

5th grade

Our game was inspired by a collaborative drawing approach invented in 1925 called exquisite corpse. We ended our tour by looking at an exquisite corpse drawing made by Arp, his wife, and two of their friends. Their exquisite corpse also incorporated torn pieces of paper glued onto the drawing. Marcel Jean drew in the top section, Oscar Dominguez drew in the second section, Arp collaged paper pieces in the third section, and his wife Sophie Taeuber-Arp collaged in the bottom section. Just as our Mad-lib during the previous stop used chance to fill in missing words, the completed group drawing was completely unplanned and unknown until the students unfolded their paper at the end of our game.

Exquisite Corpse; collaborative work by (from top to bottom) Marcel Jean, Oscar Dominguez, Jean Arp, Sophie Taueber-Arp

The Nature of Arp Tour, Part Three

Before moving on to our next sculpture, we filled out a Mad Lib together. I asked volunteers to raise their hands and give me examples of adjectives, verbs, nouns, and body parts to fill in the blanks below:

3rd grade

4th grade

We read aloud our (sometimes silly) poems. This Mad Lib is based on a poem written by Jean Arp.  Below is his version:

i awoke from a deep and dreamless sleep

with disagreeable objects on my face

sophie said they were a big fly a mustache

and a little mandolin

i had no intention whatsoever of removing them

quite the opposite

i remained motionless so that they wouldn’t fall from my face

Afterward, we looked for a sculpture that seemed to connect with this poem.

3rd grade

3rd grade

4th grade

5th grade

5th grade

Sculptures are often one big piece.  In Three Disagreeable Objects on a Face, Arp created a sculpture made of multiple parts. Do any of the small pieces look like a big fly, a mustache, or a little mandolin from Arp's poem?

These small pieces are not attached to the large piece that they rest on. Arp allowed viewers to move the parts around as they chose, so he could not plan or control how the sculpture looked. Where would you place the small pieces if you were allowed to rearrange this sculpture? 

Three Disagreeable Objects on a Face by Jean Arp