Thomas was born in Columbus, Georgia, the oldest of four girls. In 1907, her family moved to Washington, D.C., seeking relief from the racial violence in the South. Though segregated, the nation’s capital still offered more opportunities for African Americans than most cities in those years.
As a girl, Thomas dreamed of being an architect and building bridges, but there were few women architects a century ago. Instead, she attended Howard University, becoming its first fine arts graduate in 1924. In 1924, Thomas began a 35 year career teaching art at a D.C. junior high school. She was devoted to her students and organized art clubs, lectures, and student exhibitions for them. Teaching allowed her to support herself while pursuing her own painting part-time. (Source- National Museum of Women In Fine Arts)
I discussed Emphasis with my 1st graders, and talked about how Alma creates a "Center of Interest in her ''The Eclipse" work. I also talked about how she used both shape and line to create movement in her works as well. For the steps of this project, I gave my students a dark dull 12x 18" piece of construction paper. I then gave them circle templates, which the traced onto black paper and cut out. This was to create "Emphasis." They glued their black circle into a 12 x 18" paper. They then used a pencil to draw lines around their black circles. This helped the students stay on track. I then gave them pieces of bright colored paper (about 3 x 4.5"). They chose their colors, cut them into strips, and then squares. This project helped students practice their "gluing" skills. I had the students put dots of glue on the lines they drew on their 12 x 18" paper. I encouraged them to use space in between their dots. The kids had alot of fun with this project.
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