Serving Art Educators
and Students Since 1994
The Children’s City
Submitted by: Linda McLean
Media Specialist / Art Teacher
Title: The Children’s City
Presenters: Linda McLean & Cindy Scarpace
Grade: 5th; Unit: Sculpture & Construction
Time Needed: 2 or 3 Sessions
Enduring Idea:
Students study the art of renowned Detroit Artist, Tyree Guyton, to understand his vision of helping children to grow artistically.
Michigan Benchmarks:
All students will
1. Apply skills and knowledge to perform in the arts
2. Apply skills and knowledge to create in the arts
3. Analyze, describe and evaluate works of art
4. Understand, analyze, and describe the arts in their historical, social, and cultural contexts
5. Recognize, analyze, and describe connections between the arts and everyday life
6. Analyze personal, family, and community connections that involve work by visual artists.
Creativity Connection:
Students learn about the hopes and dreams of children in the Heidelberg neighborhood and apply their own ideas to construct their ideal community.
Procedure:
Read poems and information from pages 2, 7, 10, & 16 found in the book The Heidelberg Project, A Street of Dreams, by Linda K. McLean.
Discuss Tyree Guyton’s artwork. on Heidelberg Street. Discuss the poetry’s feelings and the artist’s visions for the children in the neighborhood. What does “The Children’s City” mean? What was Tyree Guyton’s hope for the children, and what did the children reveal through their art as shown in the photo?
Students design their version of an ideal home by painting and decorating a box of size and shape they desire. Houses are placed on a cardboard street so as to display an “ideal” neighborhood to grow up in. What visions are behind their artwork?
Discuss cooperative art as students decide how to construct their ideal neighborhood. Add trees, cars, neighborhood other items as desired.
Optional - Have students write about their vision of an ideal neighborhood. How does it differ from the Heidelberg community?
Visual Aids:
The Heidelberg Project: A Street of Dreams
Tyree Guyton
Materials:
Boxes of differing sizes and shapes selected by students for their house in the city. Acrylic Paint
Optional - Small cars, clay trees, streets made of cardboard, other “city scene” items as available.
Vocabulary:
Detroit Artist - Tyree Guyton, City, Community, neighborhood, ideal artist feelings, artist vision, group sculpture, 3/D
Assessment:
Did students have a deep understanding of an ideal community? Did their writing explain their thoughts and their artwork?
Lesson © Linda McLean & Cindy
