Kids' Art/Video

Romare Bearden
&
 My Hands Sing the Blues -
Romare Bearden's Childhood Journey  
&
Astro the Steller Sea Lion

... inspire kids to create collages and videos!

Isn't this a wonderful cat portrait inspired by Romare Bearden collages? The artist is Kate (the daughter of fellow Nonfiction Monday kidlit blogger NC Teacher Stuff). Thanks for sharing it with me!




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Wow! I received a tremendous packet from a 3rd grade class at Shady Grove Elementary School in Texas -- amazing artwork (collages of Astro in Romare Bearden style), an Astro poem (see below), photos of the students and photos of the school hallway decorated with "Astro week" student projects, and the sweetest thank you notes. Here's to their amazing teacher, Mrs. Linda Dyke!



ASTRO THE STELLER SEA LION

We learned about Steller sea lions,
And how they’re not like seals.
Sea lions can walk on their back flippers,
And they bark instead of squeal.

Astro now lives in Connecticut
in an aquarium on the bay.
We had a lot of fun with Astro
And hope to visit him someday.

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Thank you to Ms. Moretti for inviting me to share MY HANDS SING THE BLUES - Romare Bearden's Childhood Journey with her 7th graders at Kent Middle School. And then they created terrific collages inspired by Romare Bearden's artwork and the illustrations of Elizabeth Zunon.  Here are some of the students' collages...






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Not only a wonderful review of MY HANDS SING THE BLUES - Romare Bearden's Childhood Journey on MomsGoneGlobal.com, but an absolutely adorable **video** of her six-year old son reading his favorite page from the book! Guaranteed to make you smile!

from MomsGoneGlobal.com ...  So creative!

Collage art inspired by a visit to the Romare Bearden exhibit at the Tampa Museum of Art.  "Encourage the mixing of media forms to achieve the abstract look by layering different shapes, textures and colors ...  Look closely to see if you can find the magazine photo of a shark and a newspaper illustration of a shrimp!"

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      "The... book we read today was "My Hands Sing the Blues - Romare Bearden's Childhood Journey." The very first page featured a striking collage - appropriate, as collage is what made Bearden a famous artist.. I immediately thought, "We'll make some collages after we read this."
      We hadn't hit page 3 before Annabelle chimed in, "Can we make collages when we're done reading this?"
      Of course. :)
     And so afterward, I spread out all sorts of things on our kitchen island (feathers, shells, stars, stickers, magazines, foam, felt, silk, satin, and more) and asked the kids to create some kind of scene."

Annabelle's "Sun and Moon Share the Day"  Wonderful!

CJ's "The Legendary Coins"  Terrific!

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WOO-HOOO!!!   WHAH WHAH DE DO!!

What terrific artwork!  These collages were created by my favorite group of second graders at Bacich School in Marin County, California.  I not only had the honor of reading my book to them and doing this art project, but I have the privilege of visiting them each week and participating in their reading and writing activities. Here they are with their incredible teacher, Mrs. Caulkins!

And ... they even made me a wonderful thank you gift with all of their HANDS referencing the title of my book, My Hands Sing the Blues!  Truly special!  A gift to be cherished.

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BEARDEN INSPIRED CREATIONS!

Wow!



Look at these wonderful collages by an 8th grade class in Marin County, California, in connection with their study of the Harlem Renaissance.  Their incredible teacher, Idie Weinsoff, led them in creating multi-media collages in the style and spirit of Romare Bearden, while listening to jazz music. They took photos of their classmates playing guitar during Erika Batten's music class for the focus of the collages.  How cool is that!  And they even posted the cover of my book, MY HANDS SING THE BLUES - Romare Bearden's Childhood Journey, on the wall with the collage creations (see top photo).  Bravo to the students and the teachers!