Symbol-eyes: Tile a wall with symbols of great ideas

This activity is an ideal follow-up to the Nationality Room Symbol Search or online symbol match-up or the Oakland Treasure Hunt. Any walking tour can be adapted to be a symbol search, as well.

After a discussion of symbols, students will design a symbol representing an idea important to them, then create the tile in clay, polymer clay, or mosaic. Finished tiles can be installed in the school.

Begin with a brief introduction of the concept of symbols by asking students to give examples of symbols of the United States (flag, eagle, Great Seal of the United States, Uncle Sam, the figure Statue of Liberty, the Capitol, the White House, etc.). Ask them:

• What do each of these symbols mean?
• What is their purpose and where they are used?
• Which started out as symbols and which became symbols after a time?

Symbols are images, figures, or shapes that stand for a complex idea, object, person, or group. What other kinds of symbols can you think of?

• What are some religious symbols? [cross, menorah, lamb, fish, torah scroll, Islamic star, etc.] What do they stand for?
• What are some non-religious symbols? [school mascots, math symbols, What character traits or ideals have symbols? What are some practical symbols? [chemical symbols, traffic signs, poison labels, red cross, dollar sign $, etc.]
• Why do you think we use symbols when simple words would do?
• What real objects have become symbols? What plants, birds, or animals have become symbols? How many can you name with their symbolic meanings? [lion =courage, elephant = Republican, donkey = Democrat, dove = peace, hawk = war, lily = purity, poppy = World War I and veterans who have died in all wars, daffodil = cancer, etc.]
• What makes a good symbol? [Easy to recognize and remember, simple shape or able to be made abstract] Look for all the symbols in your classroom -- check pockets, inside books, etc., for all the places symbols hide. Which symbols "work" -- are easiest to see and understand? Which don't work as well? Why?

Nations, religions, cultures, and organizations have all adopted symbols that stand for important shared beliefs and ideals. Make a list of some of the important virtues and ideals that you believe in. Which of these would you choose to symbolize?

Design a symbol representing that idea and create a tile with the symbol. For inspiration, review the Nationality Room Symbol Search and Oakland Treasure Hunt photo cards.

Symbols often find their way into architecture, especially religious, nonprofit, educational, and government structures. Install your tiles at your school by combining all the class tiles as a tile mural or as a border on the wall of the classroom or hall. Mosaic stepping stone tiles can be installed as a walkway outside the school.

For permanency, make your tiles out of one of these media:

Ceramic clay

• Tiles on the Net
• About.com Ceramic guide's Tiles section

Polymer Clay

• PolymerClaySpot
• PolymerClayCentral
• PolymerClayHaven
• Polymer Clay Polyzine
• The PolyParrot

Mosaic

• Garden Mosaics: Casting Stained glass stepping stones
• Mosaico Network
• Mountain Top Mosaics
• Stained glass stepping stones
• The Indirect Method of Mosaic, George Fishman
• Child's version of mosaic stepping stone

Related video stories:

• Pysanky: Ukrainian Easter eggs
• Nationality Rooms
• Carnegie Mellon University and Mellon Institute
• Rodef Shalom
• Tiffany stained glass at Calvary United Methodist Church, North Side
• Hornbostel's B'nai Israel
• Heinz Memorial Chapel
• Hindu and Buddhist Temples
• Fourth Avenue: Pittsburgh's Wall Street

[Back to Oakland Special Edition]

Pysanky: Ukrainian Easter Eggs

Though many European immigrant groups brought egg-decorating traditions with them to the Pittsburgh area, none is more intricate and beautiful than pysanky, Ukrainian expresions of faith and friendship. Although now an Easter tradition, egg decoration began in the Ukraine in the year 988 A.D., long before Christianity came to the Ukraine. What was once the symbol of the coming of longer days and new life in the spring became the Christian symbol of spiritual rebirth. Try Pysanky-writing with these directions after viewing the video story from Holy Pittsburgh:

Related video stories:

• Pysanky: Ukrainian Easter eggs

Mural telling the story of working Pittsburghers

Heroes tend to grow bigger than life, so when artists memorialize their heroes, they often work bigger than life! When canvases aren't big enough to hold their heroes, artists turn to the walls. Murals are a favored way to tell the story of people and events meant to inspire.

Maxo Vanka told the story of Croatia's tragic heroes through war, and immigration, and work on the walls of St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church in Millvale. These murals are definitely not just for decoration like the murals in homes. What story do they tell?

The 1930s were a great era for murals because President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration (WPA), a program of the New Deal, employed artists to create murals for public buildings all over the nation. The Allegheny County Courthouse and many local post offices built in the 1930s are graced with these murals. Almost always these murals made heroes out of common everyday people working hard to make a life for themselves and their families.

Plan a mural to honor the hard work of Pittsburghers throughout the its history:

• Develop a story: Who do you think built Pittsburgh with their hard work? What story do you think should be told about them? What kind of work did they do? Where? What was heroic about what they did?

• Find a place at school to paint the mural and decide whether to do it on paper (temporary and portable), canvas (permanent and able to be reworked and repainted), or fresco (permanent and challenging);

• Break the story into "chapters" and assign person or team to each "chapter;"

• Design the mural to scale on paper;

• Enlarge to actual size on large mural paper (called a "cartoon") and decide on colors;

• Transfer the cartoon to the wall or paper with charcoal;

• Paint the mural.

For information about fresco--painting with egg tempera right onto wet plaster--visit the Fresco workshop at the Arts Foundation of Michigan.

Related video stories:

• St. Nicholas Croatian Church murals
• Allegheny County Courthouse
• Carnegie Museum Murals
• Restoring old Highland Park houses (mural)

Details-Details Treasure Hunt

This is a simple, effective and fun generic treasure hunt game that can be done anywhere to increase students' powers of observation and description. Depending on your goals students can either draw or write their descriptions. It also "self-adjusts" to any age-group third grade or older.

Use Details, Details to demonstrate that art is all around in your school or on a neighborhood walking tour. On a field trip it ensures that students really are paying attention, honing their skills, and learning something. You can even use it to focus attention when showing the Downtown Pittsburgh video.

All-Purpose Instant Museum Treasure Hunt

Visiting a museum or art gallery can be much more than just a snakeline tour through the hallways. On your next group museum visit, drum up more fun and more learning with a gallery game. This game is easy--it just takes a piece of paper and pencil for each person--and it encourages visitors to both browse the whole gallery and spend some quality time focussing on one object.

Set-up:

1. Define the boundaries of the Treasure Hunt within the museum (an area that includes two different rooms is ideal).
2. Assign an area as "base."
3. Distribute a piece of paper and pencil to each participant.
4. Pair up the group: one person will go to one room (or one side of a large single room), the other person to the other room (or other side of a large single room).
5. Explain the directions below.

Directions:

1. Start at base with your partner. Split up, each going to different rooms (or areas of the same room.
2. Look at the objects or pictures in your area of the museum or exhibit. Find one with plenty of details. Remember its name and its maker's name, but don't write them down.
3. Choose a small section of the object and draw it large enough to completely fill your paper.
4. Return to base after ten minutes. Switch papers with your partner.
5. Browse around your partner's area to find the object or picture his/her detail came from. The drawing is like a puzzle piece--your job is to find out where it goes.
6. When you think you've found the object, write your guess -- the object's title or description and the maker's name -- at the bottom of the drawing.
7. Return to base and check your answer with your partner. If you guessed right, congratulate yourself for having good observation skills. And congratulate your partner for having good detail-drawing skills!

Language arts variation:

Instead of drawing a detail of the object or picture, write a detailed description that partners can use to find the object.

Related video stories:

• Carnegie Museum
• Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh
• Nationality Rooms
• Heinz History Center
• Carnegie Museum's dinosaur
• Clayton: Home of Henry C. Frick

Taking a Closer Look

It can be challenging enough to look at art from our own culture! Art from other cultures and traditions is even more challenging to understand and appreciate. But students can learn to explore art from their own and other cultures-- reading images is a skill that can be developed just like reading books.

Taking a Closer Look (off-site link-- use your "Back" button to return to this site) is a systematic way of looking at art from any tradition, but it is especially useful for looking at art from non-Western traditions. When you visit the wonderful collections and special exhibits at one of Pittsburgh's museums or galleries, take this quiet activity with you and let students get to really get up-close and personal with a work of art!