Class 4: Shape (shifting)

In today's class we focussed on SHAPE. we quickly discussed a variety of terms to describe shapes and looked at images of shapes in the world and in art: geometric, organic, heart, spiral, asymmetrical, symmetrical. we looked at matisse's 'snail' which is made up of squares organized in a spiral. we did a quick scavenger hunt in the beginning of class and students tagged items around the room that had shape. i asked them to find something that had a 2-dimensional shape and something that had a 3-dimensional shape and if they could (this was a tricky one) to find something that changed it's shape when moved, used, or over time. Then I asked them to imagine something in their life, in their bedroom perhaps, that they might like to change the shape of. They used ripped and cut paper to make collages of this shape-shifted thing. As they progressed, some of them started thinking about how once they changed the shape of one thing, it inspired them to change the shape of something else related or in the picture. We talked a little about this- if you were changing a dog's head to a block instead of a sphere, what would its neck look like? its collar? or if you changed the shape of a basketball hoop, what would that mean about the ball?

olivia: i made a head that’s a rock, a rectangle mouth and a triangle nose

elaine june: this is a house, a ball, and a twisty person i’m still working on

sophia: it’s called a crazy sun and it has all different kind of shapes around it... the middle is a square and it’s gonna have a lot of crazy shapes around to make a shape sky!

katie: a sun shaped like a triangle with rays shaped like skinny rectangles (note feathering too on interior rays of sun)

john: a basketball hoop shaped like a triangle. the backboard is shaped like a triangle. the net is normal-shaped. the rim is a circle. the ball is a square shape.

niamh: my house is in the shape of a circle. the door is a square. the roof is a half-circle

owen: it’s a pool that has a very blobby shape and the hot tub is the same thing. i’m swimming in the deep end and my brother is in the shallow.

albina- i made a flower. the center is a rectangle instead of a circle. the petals are half-circles and triangles. the grass is a part-circle. (the orange figure on the mound of grass and the red square/diamond appeared after her story was transcribed)

ruby: i made a duck out of circles and triangles and rectangles hidden behind a door.

aoife: i made a bird (white) with triangle feet and a rectangle wing and a square sun!

nicholas: a house shaped like an upside down banana (3 dimensional)

julie:i’m making a heart-shaped person, a ripped moon and a tiny bed