Anne Cornell helps Keene teachers incorporate art into lessons
Kaylie Bryan, Jillian Johnson, and Kale Caswell stand with their art projects that were inspired by science lessons on the sun. Josie Sellers | Beacon
COSHOCTON – For the second consecutive year, Anne Cornell is helping teachers at Keene Elementary incorporate art into their lessons.
“The teachers come up with subjects or curriculum they think would be good to work with through art and then I think of materials the kids can use and how they can be creative,” Cornell said. “It’s another way of looking at what they are learning.”
The fifth graders were learning about the sun in class and made models, mobiles or comic strips to reflect what they learned. Their first step in the creative process was brainstorming a material list and then Cornell gathered supplies for them.
“They had to have the parts of the sun in what they created,” said Shawn Hart, who teaches fifth graders at Keene.
Cornell made sure they kept that in mind while exploring how color and shape could be used to reflect what they learned in the classroom.
“There was a lot of interpretive work going on and using their imagination to see how they could best show energy and light,” she said. “They were really engaged and their projects were unique to them and how they think.”
Koehin Walker started out big with his project, but ended up redoing it.
“I didn’t like the way it looked so I started on a smaller one,” he said.
A popular item used by many of the students in their project was a tennis ball.
“A lot of them wanted basketballs, but that’s pretty big,” Cornell said. “I had a cache of 70 tennis balls. They were just the right size and I had enough of them.”
The project taught Brayden Carpenter about perseverance.
“Never give up,” he said. “If you have an idea don’t give up. Keep trying.”
Kale Caswell also learned to keep pushing.
“The hardest part was getting these two parts on mine to stay hot glued,” he said. “I tried two times then I had to get Ms. Cornell. She glued it, I pressed down and it stayed.”
Evertt Gibbs and Gavin Bahmer both incorporated paper mache into their projects.
“That was fun doing something hands-on,” Bahmer said.
Mya Roberts did two projects, one being a comic strip.
“This made it fun to learn,” she said. “With the comic strip you had to draw something and have a plot.”
Lily Grewell said their comic strips had to show how the sun is important.
“It was fun to do,” she said. “I like drawing more than constructing.”
Mazie Pack also enjoyed the comic strip project.
“You got to be a little more creative with it,” she said. “It helped with understanding how important the sun is too.”
Hart said the hands-on projects made a difference.
“The results showed up on their test scores,” he said. “They all got As or Bs. That hands-on approach with art is very beneficial.”
Third grade teacher Kirsten McPeck helped bring Cornell to the school last year and is happy to have her back.
“They (the students) love to be able to look at things and create things,” McPeck said. “By tying this in with a subject they are able to take what they’ve covered and see it in different ways.”
Cornell’s time at the school this year is being funded by the Teach Arts Ohio grant from the Ohio Arts Council. She will spend 100 days with students and staff throughout the 2019-20 school year. In addition to the fifth graders she also has worked with first and third graders. Some of their pieces will be entered into the Johnson-Humrickhouse Museum’s A Playground of Color exhibit and Cornell will organize an exhibit for the students at the end of the year.
Category: Education, Multimedia, Photo Galleries
