Creative Celtic compositions.

In the flurry to create multicultural art experiences, we usually design lesson plans around Hispanic and African American traditions. These certainly have merit, but in the small, rural area where I teach, to ignore the Northern European heritage would be insensitive to the vast majority of the students. I planned to introduce a unit on Celtic art, and March seemed like the right time! Not only did this give the students an opportunity to learn about Irish culture, but it really challenged them to deal with some very complex design problems. I was amazed at how successful these fifth grade students were at creating beautiful, intricate art!

A Unique Design

I researched the historical background of the Celts, the isolation of the Irish people, and the resulting illuminated manuscripts, painstakingly produced by monks. The children were fascinated by the intertwining design of the alphabet. They were eager to invent their own letter. Since much of the Celtic alphabet does not resemble our modern alphabet, I encouraged them to make several sketches and not to be too concerned with making a letter that was recognizable. The point, rather, was to come up with a unique design. Students drew their designs on a 2 x 2" (5 x 5 cm) piece of tagboard, cut it out carefully, and used it as the pattern for the final project.

Thinking through the Design

The next challenge for the students was to take the pattern piece and trace it with pencil on the final paper. We discussed composition and creating a pleasing overall design. The temptation to randomly trace the pattern was overcome by the importance of thinking about composition -- students realized that they would have go back with an eraser and take out the lines that "didn't make sense." In other words, concepts like visual space, depth overlapping, and intertwining all came into play as they struggled with their designs. This was easier for some than for others and I encouraged them to really "use their eyes," and to have a friend check for out of place lines before moving on to the next step.

Composition and Pattern

After redoing the pencil lines in black marker, the last step was to create pattern in the composition. This was done using both thick and thin black markers and focusing on both the positive and negative spaces. To avoid the tendency to fill in everything, like a coloring book, we again looked at common Celtic patterns and reviewed the concept of composition. It is difficult for this age to know when to stop, so I encouraged them (as I do with all of their projects) to periodically look at the piece from a distance. They are used to this idea nd it frequently becomes an informal forum for critique among the students. It also helps them to slow down and not overwork their art.

Impressive Displays

Three, hour-long classes was my original plan for this unit, but the students themselves asked for an extra hour, because of the complexity. I limited the color to black and white to help simplify the lesson. They had enough to think about! As they worked, I played Irish music or read folk tales aloud. Their final work was mounted on either black or white board, and all of the students were extremely proud of their hard work! The hallway displays of these beautiful, "Celtic" compositions were impressive and many people remarked with surprise at how sophisticated these designs were for fifth grade! Expanding this basic unit for Middle School or High School would certainly result in even more impressive compositions.