As educators, we teach skills that are valuable in the classroom as well as skills that can be carried into students’ everyday lives. Kindness and collaboration are crucial skills in all aspects of life. Throughout the year, my first-grade classes have practiced these skills while “coolaborating” on a variety of projections. The term “coolaboration” represents the synthesis of respect, problem-solving, and creating in the classroom.
Students add finishing touches to a Wayne Thiebaud–inspired gumball machine.Nora F., Nora W., Owen, and Justin pose for a picture with Dale Chihuly–inspired coffee filters.Lucy and Annalise work together on a combined cityscape watercolor painting.Left: Students paint large, colorful designs during an expanded collaboration inspired by Romero Britto. Right: Parker, Ella, Zain, and Kaylie work on an abstract paper collaboration.
In addition to creating individual pieces of art, students work together in various partnerships, helping one another while using respectful words and sharing ideas, workspaces, and supplies. This coolaboration has enhanced their classroom environment and their work. Conversations range from ideas about what to draw to compliments on one another’s work.
Starting with Dinosaurs
Inspired by If the Dinosaurs Came Back by Bernard Most (Clarion Books, 1984), students drew dinosaurs and created imaginative environments with a partner on a large sheet of butcher paper. Practice improved their final drawings, and the collaborative brainstorming enhanced the unique environments they created.
Moving to Cityscapes
Introducing Pop artist James Rizzi’s cityscapes is a fun way to teach the concept of constructed environments and introduce watercolor-resist painting techniques. The collaborative aspect allowed me to discuss how city planners and architects work together when designing downtown areas.
When students were almost finished with their individual projects, I taped a clean sheet of paper between two paintings. I continued this until everyone had a partner. The pairing was based on how well the paintings looked together and how far along they were. Coolaborating with their partner, students created a cityscape design by combining their pieces of art. As a bonus, the noise level in the classroom was noticeably lower—a welcome respite in any art room!
Abstract Collaboration
The abstract, colorful nature of paper manipulation is always a crowd pleaser, especially following the tightness of the James Rizzi paintings. Students learned and practiced making tabs, accordion chains, pleats, curls, loops, fringes, and arches before applying them to one giant piece of black butcher paper that they later enhanced with white oil pastel.
Some students initially had a difficult time understanding that another artist could add to their paper creation, but as the project progressed, they began to see firsthand how someone else can have a different perspective and create something wonderful from their original idea.
It was interesting to see some students take a conceptual approach, enjoying the pure abstraction of the paper, while others were more intentional, tailoring their paper techniques to create something more specific. Coolaboration allowed all students to notice these differences throughout the process rather than at completion.
Thiebaud-Inspired Gumball Machines
Gumball machines inspired by Wayne Thiebaud provided a great opportunity to use circle templates, enhance tracing and painting skills, and introduce color-mixing with tempera paint. Groups of four or five students worked on one large gumball machine throughout the various stages.
Because students were working on the same piece together, there was more opportunity for them to help each other. It was not uncommon to see students showing each other how to properly trace using a template, hold a paintbrush when outlining a circle, color-mix secondary colors, and use a dauber to outline.
Extensions
Coolaboration extended into the second-grade art classes as students learned about warm and cool colors, geometric and organic shapes, and creating an installation piece. In addition to focusing on the art of glass artist Dale Chihuly, we talked about the factory approach first introduced by Andy Warhol.
Students cranked out painted coffee filters, filling the art room with a hum of excitement. They secured the filters over plastic cups with rubber bands, sprayed them with spray starch, and then hot-glued the organic shapes onto beach balls and black paper to hang from the ceiling—an awesome display for all to enjoy.
Creating Romero Britto murals expanded our coolaboration theme to first through fourth grades. Painting large, colorful designs on butcher paper required students to assess the picture plane and make creative decisions about which patterns to place in the sections. I was proud to hear students suggest ideas to one another; this was exactly what the coolaboration project was designed for.
Conclusion
The goal of coolaboration is to get students to work together respectfully and responsibly to create a quality piece of art, regardless of skill level or personality differences. This underlying theme brought them closer as a group and taught them the importance of group problem-solving while fostering compassion and tolerance.
Linda Schober is an art teacher for Pleasant View and Robinwood Elementary Schools, Franklin Public Schools, in Franklin, Wisconsin. LamSchober@Gmail.com
National Standard
Creating: Conceiving and developing new artistic ideas and work.
This issue highlights several ways in which art teachers have integrated collaboration into their teaching practice, such as providing students with opportunities to problem-solve and work together throughout the year, learning about the Sustainable Development Goals and creating a tile installation symbolizing them, inviting a local florist to teach an art lesson, collaborating with an artist to create an outdoor installation using materials reclaimed from the ocean, and more.
