Each year my students do a collaborative mural to coincide with our cultural unit. This year might be my favorite one yet. We made a giant red pagoda or shrine to go along with our Art Inspired by Asia Unit in which we studied Japan and China. It was cut out of three 4'x8' pieces of insulation foam. My hot knife is my favorite $250 tool. I baby and take care of it and rarely share it. Anytime we use insulation foam (an old theatre teacher's trick from my theatre teaching days) we base coat it first with white acrylic paint, which forms a nice base for all further painting. After that dries, we draw the basic outline and details and then enjoy painting. Paint moves really nicely on this foam. I really enjoy using it. The pagoda was made in three sections, which were assembled right on the wall. The background was a painted paper sky and grass. Then we painted large rolled Kraft paper with shades of brown to make the tree trunks. Finally, many of my younger students colored round pink and white circles with pink, white, and red oil pastels to make the cherry blossoms. After a lot of positioning and taping which was done by students, the Sakura orchard (cherry blossom) came to life on the wall. (By the way, 3M double sticky white foam tape is the best for attaching heavy murals to the wall.) Students gasped with delight when it was finished. Waiting and watching for the hall mural to be finished has become quite a big moment for my students. There is a huge pride factor in their collaborative effort. I think that one of the things I enjoy the most about collaborative wall murals is that many of the younger students just simply cannot "picture" what it is going to look like as the various pieces are being made on the art room tables. As the pieces are being assembled on the hallway wall many still do not see how the final mural is going to look, but slowly they each have their "ah ha" moments when the final picture takes shape in their thought processing. Students enjoyed a bit more fun by holding up the kimonos made with the same foam for a photo-booth type of opportunity. Those are the magical moments for me! Enjoy our Cherry Blossom Mural with Pagoda! We sure have!
The photos below show the wall mural. There is a "wishing tree" strung in front of it and extended from two large real tree branches set in plaster of paris. Students wrote their messages on the wishing tree cards. This is also a tradition in Asian countries.
