fUNNY fACES - Brief Article

Arts & Activities, Nov, 2000 by Yvonne Greene

This torn-paper and gadget-print activity can be completed in one or two class periods, and provides a high-interest lesson that I've found effective for my youngest (pre-kindergarten through first grade) students. I think it would also hold the interest of second and third graders.

It can be used at Halloween to counteract the tired, stereotypical imagery of pumpkin faces, which emerge from classrooms as seasonal "art." However, the products are not specifically "seasonal," so this activity can be done at any time.

To begin, I show my students examples of masks from a variety of world cultures. We briefly discuss symmetry as it applies to the human face and to the masks. We discuss a variety of human emotions expressed on the masks: happy, sad, angry, scary, silly, surprised.

Students begin by selecting one of the sheets of colorful paper to use for the general face shape. This sheet is folded in half (in either a "hotdog" vertical or "sandwich" horizontal fold). Then, by tearing around the three open sides and retaining as much of the paper as possible, the students produce a face shape which is symmetrical when the paper is unfolded. The teacher needs to demonstrate this first, then lend assistance so the children don't tear off too much.

Once each child produces a useable, symmetrical face shape, they will glue their face shapes to the other piece of construction paper as a background. After discussing what features a face requires, students can then tear and glue colorful papers to create eyes, nose, mouth, ears, cheeks, hair, hats, earrings, etc. Glue work should be carefully done by using small amounts of glue around the edges of the shapes so no oozing or loose edges interfere with the printing process to follow.

Encourage them to layer small, contrasting shapes over larger ones, especially for the eyes, which creates optimum expressiveness. All shapes for the funny faces are torn, contributing to the expressive quality of the final product, as well as to the speed of production.

When the creation of the features is accomplished, the students are ready to move on to the printing process. Students get to this point at varying speeds. When several are ready, demonstrate the gadget-printing process to the entire group. Small groups may come up to the printing station to print as they are ready.

Students need to wear paint smocks for this process since gadget-printing

with young children is invariably a messy process. You will need to supervise the students so they print only enough shapes on top of the torn paper shapes to add definition to their faces. Giving them free license to print will result in their indiscriminate covering of the entire surface with gadget prints.

I find that children need to have previously experienced printing and exploring with gadgets in other activities in which they were allowed to print as many times on the paper as they wished. For this lesson, they need to be encouraged to print selectively and to stop once the funny face has been defined with the black printed shapes.

Because the youngsters finish at different times, I direct them to wash, hang up their shirts, then get free-drawing paper to draw on at their tables without disturbing the other shifts of printers who will move to the printing tables when they are ready.

The resulting "funny faces" produced by my first-graders were of such high graphic impact that I selected four to use for our school's Youth Art Month billboard on the highway last year.

MATERIALS

* Two 9" x 12" sheets of contrasting, bright color construction paper per child

* Scrap trays with a selection of bright colored construction paper pieces (no black)

* Glue

* Gadgets for printing

* Foam paint pads (1 only use black paint in the pads, but water-soluble printing ink will work too)

Yvonne Greene teaches art at West Ward Elementary School in Slaton, Texas.