Week three: Fantasy Dioramas
October 16th 2021
Method of instruction: Zoom
Age Group: K-5
Teachers: Kora Burke & Rachel Meyer
Student Artwork
Reflection
Essential Questions:
How can fantasy be portrayed in an environment?
What makes dioramas useful?
How can you tell a story through one still scene?
Learning Objectives:
By the end of the bellringer, TLW participates in a group discussion by describing one piece of existing knowledge about dioramas.
By the end of class, TLW have combined at least 5 sculptural materials a diorama of a fantasy landscape.
By the end of class, TLW present their project and share what makes it fantasy.
Lesson Summary
By the third lesson Rachel and I had gotten into a rhythm and we knew what to expect procedurally. We began the hour with a short informal assessment asking the students what they already knew about dioramas. We built off of what they told us and provided more specific examples and explanations of dioramas and models. Most of the students were familiar with a small scale model or a diorama but none had created one themselves. Since Rachel and I had prepared to let the students have the majority of the class time to work we did not include a bellringer, so after the discussion we went right into artist examples and introduced the prompt.
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This was the week where students could use all the materials that we provided them in the kits that we sent home. We included felt, colored paper, glue, model magic, pipe cleaners, cotton balls, and a paper box. We told the students they were allowed to choose whatever materials we provided them to create their dioramas and could even implement found materials from around their house. The students were all very excited about the prospect of using these materials and all looked forward to using the model magic. We gave the students direction for their dioramas, asking them to develop an imaginative space with figures, animals, plants, etc., and give it a fantasy twist. Before work time, we discussed foreground, middle ground, and background and how they can be seen in our teacher examples and used to improve their own dioramas.
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Students were given the remainder of the hour to work before we held a gallery to present our work, about 45 minutes. We were able to give students suggestions and feedback during the lesson as they all volunteered to display their progress throughout the workshop. What really made this lesson a success was that the scale of the project and the variety of materials really encouraged the students to try their best with the assignment.
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Final Outcomes and Modifications
This was really an ideal lesson for online learning because when provided with a variety of materials, the art classroom comes alive, even if the classroom is over zoom.  In addition, the materials that the students collected from their home environments made their dioramas more interesting and is a unique advantage of online learning. With this in mind, if I teach online again in the future I would certainly implement this lesson to get the students excited about materials and think about their living spaces more as a creative space, by searching for and including found objects in their work.  If I were to do this lesson over, I would put more emphasis on students making their diorama fantasy related since one student simply depicted a setting from reality.  I would also provide materials that better suited the project, for example the felt paper was underused and the students mentioned wanting a sturdier box. Despite those small modifications the lesson and the end results of the project were hugely successful.