1st grade is learning about geometric shapes and free-form shapes. Today, they learned that geometric shapes have names (circle, triangle, rectangle, hexagon, etc.) and that free-form shapes don't have names. Then, using various scraps of colored paper, each student cut out a free-form shape that didn't look like anything at all. Once every student had cut a shape, I shuffled the shapes up and passed them out again. The students glued their new shape to a piece of paper, and made a picture out of it! None of the shapes really looked like anything by themselves, but with the creative work of my 1st graders, each shape turned into a recognizable picture.
This red shape became a snail:
This brown shape became a bow-tie:
One student made this yellow shape into a pair of really big pants:
Another student made this shape into a mommy whale, and added a baby whale and daddy whale to make the picture complete:
By adding ears to this pink shape, this student created a dog. Adding a dog house and food dish made the picture complete:
A few leaves made this pink shape into a tree:
This red shape became a whale spouting water:
Here we have a crocodile in a swamp:
A few criss-cross lines on the shell made this brown shape into a turtle:
