Design Process

For our culminating project, our teacher team agreed to have a Gallery Display with different samples of art made by the children during our unit of study.

Our unit is linked to Math standards based on shapes. Besides naming them, finding them around the environment, and recognizing their particular characteristics, the curriculum calls for a standard where we can see shapes used as part of a composition.

As a morning learning engagement, the children were exposed to a variety of shape cutouts in different sizes. Then, they were invited to use the shapes to make something. One of my girls made “Elsa’s Castle” using triangles, rectangles, and squares. That sparked the interest of the other children!

Children came to join, and the creative process started. We had fire trucks, racing cars, panda bears, etc. This provocation was set for a few days.

After practicing the skill, the children made a “final” design they glued on paper. This design was laminated and then presented to the children.

The next day, the children drew a visual closure around each independent shape, and then they recreated their design on a new paper, drawing a picture of their composition.

This composition was later transferred to a 3D project. We are using old newspapers to make the 3D shapes and bring our creations to some kind of sculpture design. We will ask the children if they want to paint it using different colors or perhaps just painting the background with black. Come back for more details later on!