They are not just for

birthday partiesAnymore!

Balloons in Our Visual Culture

Historical Context of Balloons

Ballooning Milestones

U.s. Entrepid Civil War era Balloon 18th Century Air Ship

Hot Air Balloons Take New Forms

Postmodern Balloon Sculpture

Jason Hackenwerth lives and works in NYC

Postmodern Balloon Sculpture

Postmodern Balloon- Fashion

Japanese Balloon Artist Daisy Rei Hosokai creates almost everything with balloons, from Dresses to accessories and even flowers

Create understanding about geometric patterns and how they can be used to design a color scheme

Teach students how to develop their own geometric design for a hot air balloon and choose a specific color scheme.

Teach students how to paint their design and construct their balloon using fabric, glue, styrofoam cups, recycled plastic bags and string

Artistic Skill Objectives

Help student learn how balloons have been used throughout history and in different cultures

Teach students how balloons are used in advertising and through out our popular culture.

Show students ways balloons are continuing to evolve and be innovated in various directions ( Architecture, Medicine, Engineering etc.)

Create awareness of how contemporary artists have used balloons in their art

Help students realize how they have been affected by their visual experiences with balloons in order to illustrate how visual culture affect us in many subtle and different ways

Visual Culture Objectives

Jeff Koones“Rabbit” &”Puppy”

Contemporary Artists Examples

Paul McCarthy

Paul McCarthy- “Complex Shit” 2008

Contemporary Artists Examples

“Piggies” 2007

New Balloon Applications

Chineese Cultural Balloons

Step 1- Demonstration (creating geometric patterns)Step 2- Distribute materials to studentsStep 3- Have student design geometric pattern on balloon

template and decide on a color schemeStep 4- Demonstrate how to transfer the design to the final

fabricStep 5- Have students transfer final designsStep 6- Have student paint design after they have traced them

onto fabric. Let dry and repeat on second side the following classStep 7- Have students bring in recycled plastic bags to stuff their

balloonsStep 8- Have students fabricate balloon basket out of styrofoam

cupNote: when preparing the balloon fabric make sure to leave

enough of a gap to fill balloons.

Lesson Procedures-Kindergarten

Discuss balloons and advertising connections. Have students develop ideas within their communities of how balloon ads could be used.

Cultural events / Local Business / Organizations ect.

Have students design a balloon ad for their chosen theme

Have students cut out their designs in two identical pieces.

Line inside with plastic and glue two pieces together

Have students paint their final balloon sculptures

Lesson Procedures-3rd Grade

Balloon Lesson-Teaching Examples

Student Portfolio-Kindergarten

Student Portfolio- 3rd Grade

Jessica – 3rd Grade Sydney- 3rd Grade

Student Portfolio- 3rd Grade

Andrew – 3rd GradeTravis - 3rd Grade

Assessment Questions1.• Did student complete their balloon in a unique way

within the time allowed?

2.• Did student learn the basic concepts related to using

geometrical patterns to create a Hot Air Balloon?

3.• Did students learn how balloons have evolved over

time and how they are used in advertising?

4.• Did student develop a custom balloon advertisement

related to a local establishment or place of interest?

5.• Did students participate in discussions and or

contribute creative ideas to the project?

I tried to do too much for a two day lessonIn the future I will not have K graders used

paint…Stressing that the students make the designs

as big as possible for the older groups would have helped in terms of cutting out shape and stuffing them.

Take more pictures during the processMake sure you don’t drown students in

information that they can’t process or appreciate

Pre glueing the Kindergarten balloons was a good idea but limited the putcomes.

Lesson Plan Critique & Revisions

General I felt that the lesson went very well and the students all seemed to respond enthusiastically

Picking a theme that is easy for young students to relate to but still leaves a lot of potential creative work for them to resolve was quite successful.

There are many ways I found that balloons can be related to visual culture for a wide variety of art lessons.

This lesson plan could be adapted for levels through out middle school and beyond.

Lesson Plan Conclusion