Two years ago, my colleague Katy C. and I led an in-service workshop for teachers on a Superintendent’s Conference Day at Chittenango Middle School. We shared information about Joseph Cornell and how his concepts would work with every subject matter from book reports to math lessons to foreign language family trees. His boxes pertained to celestial themes and celebrity, and animals (mainly birds), but it is not a huge stretch to see the diorama-ic-ness of it all with the addition of text where applicable.
We made samples using Mod Podge to decoupage utility boxes then filled them with curriculum. These are the samples we made. We kept making them and sharing them with each other. It was so fun the way we kept making more and laughing at their awesomeness. So fun building on what came before and getting more and more creative.
I love when everyone realizes how instrumental art is to all other subjects. It is the visual language of dreams.
P. S. The workshop was a huge success!
Can’t wait to start the new school year next week! So ready to get boxed back into my classroom and to begin making art with my new amazing thirteen-year-olds. <3
I can see why the workshop was a great success, Karen and how the diorama-type boxes would be equally applicable to pretty much any subject area! Love the creativity involved in the examples that you and Katy C. came up with and traded back and forth.
Wishing you the best as you start a new school year! I am sure that your students will benefit from that same creativity in the classroom and that it will positively impact their lives in all their academic endeavors!