Surrealism with Joan Miro

3rd Graders at Emerson Elementary learned about the art of Joan Miro.  We started by looking at the painting Daybreak for 30 seconds in silence.

We asked students, "What did you notice at FIRST glance?  Where did your eyes go first?"  Answers and reasons varied.  Then we interrupted at 10 seconds into the 30:  "Did you notice something JUST NOW that you didn't see at first?"  We repeated at 20 seconds and then at the end of the 30 second look.  We talked about the importance of learning how to look at a painting, to let your eyes "take a walk" around the whole piece.  Think of what we would have missed if we had just quickly moved on to the talk!

The students viewed several Miro paintings and discussed the use of lines and shapes, color and space in each painting.  Students defined Surrealism and noted the difference between lines and shapes ("Shapes are lines that connect together to close!").  We noted how each student would "see" very different things in the paintings:  "I see a bird!" or "No, I see a tree." or "There is an eye".   Before starting our own Miro inspired drawings, we watched this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNHffh__mUY

And here are some shots of the process and finished products!: