Third Graders Are Masters of Japanese Ikebana!

Oh boy, what an amazing undertaking! I was looking for something challenging and interesting for my third graders to do this year, and was inspired by this post for Ikebana in the art room. After sitting down to plan it I realized this project would take AT LEAST ten weeks to complete because of all of the steps involved, but I was resolved to go for it because I figured it offered an opportunity for a variety of skills to be learned and materials to learn how to work with. My fear was that perhaps the students would get bored and complain that they were tired of working on the same project for so long, but I found the opposite resulted. Students were very engaged in all of the steps and I feel this project was an excellent opportunity for them to practice focus and commitment to a goal.



These were the steps in this loooooonnnnnngggggg process:

1. Intro to Ikebana - the art of Japanese flower arranging. Students watched a video.
2. Sketchbook work - students think about what season they want their Ikebana to represent, and for whom they might be making it. Students draw a design of a vase they want to make out of clay.
3. Students create their vase out of clay using hand-building techniques. These were glazed a few weeks later using no more than two colors in order to keep them somewhat simple.
4. Students research the types of flowers they might want to make for their arrangements on the iPads, and draw them in their sketchbooks.
5. Students learn how to make flowers out of paper, and are encouraged to invent and discover different methods through trial and error that are similar to their flower drawings. 
6. Students spend several weeks creating their flowers.
7. Students view ikebana again, this time focusing on how the artists have arranged the flowers, and are encouraged to be intentional in the way their flowers are placed and interact with the space in their own pieces. 
8. Early finishers draw still lifes of their own ikebana artworks. PHEW!