Folk Art Walking Sticks
       Students Make Their Own Walking Sticks!*

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Lesson Plan

Folk Art Links

This lesson focuses on the information provided on the "Folk Art" pages. The students are shown photographs of "Mystery Works" (Walking Sticks) without any information about the artists or artworks provided.  The teacher, as facilitator, helps them discover as much as they can about the works. The students work in teams and answer 5 questions on a worksheet: 1) What do you see? 2) How is it put together? 3) What is the artist trying to say? 4) What do you think of the work and why? 5) What is folk art? All of the team members should provide part of the answers for questions1 through 3. During closure answers are shared and guesses are made to the dates of the sticks and where they come from. The teacher then shares biographical information about the artists (see "Artists & Their Works" links). If you want to copy the images, please e-mail me first for permission). This part of the lesson takes one 45 minute period. On day 2, the students bring sticks that are 1 to 2 inches in diameter and no taller than their shoulder. These sticks are typically branches from trees that they have found or in some instances the parents have "harvested" for them.  The students must peel the bark off the sticks and clean them off. Utilizing natural features on the stick, the students create a figurative features using Pearl PaperClay from Creative PaperClay. The paperclay can be attached  and then worked like regular clay. Here's how: Mold the piece a bit, moisten the pat that will come in contact with the wood and smear it on. Just like regular clay, you must be sure that the piece is really smoothed on with no cracks showing. There is a bit of shrinkage, so long continuous snake like forms will tend to pull out a bit. After they dry (a couple of days), paint them with tempera and varnish (I used Mod Podge). Logistics/Tips: Make the students aware of the space around them as they create the figurative features. In other words, they should know that there might be 3 feet of stick behind them as they work on the top Place a piece of masking tape around the bottom and write the student's name on it. Allow for plenty of storage room. Bamboo does not work at all. You bring in a few extra sticks and maybe tell the students to bring in extras. These can be used for kids that just can't seem to find a stick. Tell the administrators and the bus drivers what you are doing so they will be aware that a few hundred kids will be carrying sticks either on the bus or into the building. Break up the bricks of paper clay and put them into zip lock bags. If something falls or breaks off, just take a bit of Elmer's glue and glue it back on. *Chosen as an "Outstanding Folk Art/Folklife Curriculum Plan" by New York University's Folk Art / Folklife in Education Institute, 1997 Click the thumbnails below for full size pictures about the lesson and student works.