“No one uses real maps anymore…”
That’s what the kids at the art table at the Valvano Day Hospital at Duke Children’s all agreed as they sat together transforming old black and white maps into colorful works of art using this Local Map Doodles lesson last week.
The lesson is just one of sixteen different lessons we’re using at art tables and bedside studios in August to explore this month’s keywords: Travel, Maps, and Around the World. We’re doing this as a part of our EXPLORE unit in which we are inviting students to examine their cities, country, and even the furthest reaches of our world, without ever having to leave the art table!
In this digital age, when maps and navigation are intuitive and interactive, taking the time to really examine paper maps with the Map Doodles lesson has been a fun and thought-provoking exercise for most of our students. Arts For Life Durham regular Kaylee will be driving in a couple of years. As she sat working on her Map Doodle, she joked with Program Coordinator Alison Griffin about how bad she was at reading maps. “I’m not going to know how to get anywhere!” she said. Alison, who had printed out maps of Durham for the lesson, also enlarged the maps on a copier and pinpointed where Duke Children’s Hospital was – so students like Kaylee could see exactly where they were creating art at that very moment!
This lesson was popular at Alison’s art table, and kids of all ages got in on the action:
Arts For Life Durham students Myasia, Isaiah, and Ady