4th Grade had visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium earlier in the year so this lesson reinforced the excellence of KELP!(ok....aaaaaand positive shapes, negative shapes, organic vs. geometric :) )
I first used some familiar terms they may be learning in mathematics. This quickly turned on their thinking caps!:
• Lines can be continuous with one end point, or segments, with 2 endpoints.
• Shapes are groupings of segments to enclose a space.
• Organic shapes are often not geometric, meaning they are shapes with fluidity, resembling things living, or abstractions. (Another word used to describe organic shapes is freeform - these do not 'represent' an actual, recognizable shape.)
We then opened with a dialogue about geometric vs. "organic" shapes - what they are, how these 2 kinds of shapes make them feel when looking at them...where we can see these kinds of shapes in the world.
I showed posters of Henri Matisse's The Mermaid and the Parakeet cut paper collage. I did a small demo, by cutting an organic shape, showing them the difference between the positive shape (the shape itself), and it's negative (the space surrounding an enclosed shape).
Results were fantastic - this was the first time I have done a Matisse lesson. The students were super into this project!! Keeper.
