For this activity students use their creative and planning skills to create a design with
overlapping geometric shapes.
WHAT YOU NEED
- Drawing paper
- Crayons, colored markers, or paints
- Stencils with various geometric shapes, or traceable forms in different sizes
WHAT TO DO
- Review with students the use of a Venn diagram for showing shared characteristics.
Stress the meaning of the "common ground" within the diagrams, that is, the space that
indicates shared characteristics.
- Ask students to consider other geometrical shapes that might interlock and share a common
space. Point out that the various shapes could be used to create interesting patterns. Then
invite students to give it a try.
- Students should be as creative as possible in designing patterns of interlocking shapes.
When students finish, they should color their designs, reserving the brightest colors for the
common ground, that is, wherever the shapes overlap.
- Encourage students to plan their designs carefully and not to color them until they are
satisfied with what they have done. The task can get very challenging, because they can use
smaller shapes within larger ones. If students wish, they can use only one shape throughout,
or they can use a mix of different shapes.
To encourage interaction among students, create an art gallery of the different patterns,
using a bulletin board placed where others in the school can see it. Add a large piece of
newsprint or wrapping paper and encourage passersby to write comments about the effects of
the designs on them or to add their own patterns.
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