The Picnic Lesson in Everyday Life

An elder from the tribe was invited to give a lecture in Mr. Liu’s class. When he talked about the young and old generations in the tribe, he was sad to tell that there had been a cultural gap between the two. Mr. Liu thus decided to revive the tribal tradition of making tree bark clothes, helping the students to understand their own culture. The lesson led the kids to learn the knowledge of trees and understand why people needed to make tree bark clothes in the old times. They practically experienced how to soften tree bark, and used the local materials and techniques to make items that can fit contemporary needs. To pass on the aboriginal culture, the lesson revealed the lifestyle of the tribes and presented the wisdom of ancestors taking good advantage of natural materials from daily life. And it also encouraged the kids to keep discovering new possibilities within traditional craftsmanship.

From her experience of purchasing flowers, Mrs. Wang found that most of the shops didn’t provide packages that would match the colors of the bouquets. And the packages used to be too colorful to dignify the grace of flowers. After discussing the suitability of colors with the class in the art and design course for one semester, Mrs. Wang assigned a task to the class: using the materials at hand to make a package that can properly hold and fit the flowers. What would be the priority for the students: the colors which can fit flowers better or their own color preferences?

After the art and design course last semester, Mrs. Chen expected to take the students to sense more beauty in life. She thus came up with a new lesson, The Picnic Lesson in Everyday Life, which brought food and life to the class. The students prepared food by themselves, and during the process, they applied the concepts of art and design to their work. Mrs. Chen invited a Home Economics teacher to interdisciplinary cooperated with her. They translated the compositional design rules: dots, lines and planes into knife skills: dicing, julienning and slicing. With different thinking of making food, the students created amazing dishes which they even couldn’t believe were made by their own hands. The most important part of the lesson was encouraging the students to walk out of the classroom to physically experience things in life with all senses.

This art and design course of Yu-Shan Public Junior High School was developed from the school-based curriculum, climbing Mt. Jade, the students climbing the highest mountain in Taiwan on different levels of routes in different grades. Mr. Chang hoped to help the children cultivate aesthetic sensibility from their life experiences. Therefore, he encouraged the students to design a board game with the inspiration of their journeys in the mountains. With intense participation and great teamwork, the students took good advantage of the design principles and completed their creative and original works.