Selected Poems of Joy Harjo - Music Center

Sharp Shapes:
o Look at some of the sharp shapes in the work of Henri Matisse. What parts of the design are composed of sharp shapes?
o What are some of the images on our list that have a lot of sharp shapes? (Students’ list.)
o Sharp Shapes are like triangles, squares. They have only sharp edges and points.
Teacher demonstrates a sample Sharp Shape cut, followed by giving instructions for students to make their own cuts.
Instructions/ Sharp Shapes:
Hold the paper and make a straight cut and then stop, turn the paper and make another crisp cut to make a sharp shape.
Make your practice cut of a sharp shape on the orange paper.
Hold up your paper cut for everyone to see.
Curving Shapes:
o Next, we are going to make Curving Shapes. Curving shapes are flowing without sharp edges. What are some examples of Curving Shapes?
Teacher demonstrates a sample Curving Shape cut and then instructs students.
Instructions/ Curving Shapes:
Gently turn the paper as you are cutting and this will help to you give the shape its curve.
Make your practice cut of a curvy shape on the blue paper
Hold up your paper cut so that others can see it.
Combination Shapes: We are going to practice making a shape that has both sharp and curvy shapes to create a meaningful image.
Now think of a plant, an animal, a fish or a flower – something from nature.
You will use a combination of sharp shapes and curved shapes to cut it out of black paper.
o Teacher demonstrates making a cut-out that uses a combination of sharp shapes and curving shapes to represent its meaning.
Students choose any image to make practice cuts using the black paper.
Use the cutting techniques that you just practiced, combine both sharp and curvy shapes.
Hold your image up so everyone can see.
What you have done is to make a silhouette – a cut-out that shares meaning only through its shape. Look at a few of your images on the screen.
Observe how even very simple shapes are beautiful. What “character” and meaning do they communicate on the shadow screen?
Size and Scale:
Teacher then demonstrates the concept of scale using different sized puppets.
o Why is size important in a shadow puppet? Shadow puppets need to be large enough to be seen and small enough to fit in the screen.
o What else does size tell us about a character or image? (size relationship, emotional relationship, power relationship)
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What are the core images that should be included in the shadow play performance of our Found Poem?
What are the specific shadow images that we need to make to visually portray the ideas and characters of the shadow play?
Music Center Anchor Work Model Curriculum Unit: Selected Poems of Joy Harjo.
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