Duration: 40 minutes
SPIRIT Skills:
- Critical thinking
- Problem-solving
- Creativity
Brief Description:
Briefly review the criteria for stage 1.
Choose now a specific landscape and find these elements in the selection of black and white copies.
- divide the black and white copies (both landscapes mixed together).
Check: Is their choice of landscape correct?
Can they justify their choice?
- cut out 7 different elements, at least 1 large and 1 very small
Drawing paper is distributed.
- arrange your cut-out elements from large to small on your sheet of paper.
Check: is this working?
- look together, validate and evaluate each other’s work.
Critical thinking: is this correct?
Arrange now your cut-out elements from large to small on your sheet of paper, but with overlap (in front of and behind each other)
- check: what happens to your image? Could this image be a real landscape?
Critical thinking: is this possible?
Drawing a landscape + making a collage with landscape elements
You are now going to make your own landscape!
- take your sheet of paper and lay it horizontally.
- We will start by dividing the sheet into two parts (teacher demonstrates all steps)
- this is the horizon line
- you choose whether to place this line in the middle or at the top
- you choose whether this horizon line is straight or curved
The sky goes in the top section. Below that is the ground, where the small and large elements go. (See appendix, teacher also demonstrates this on the blackboard.)
Now arrange your cut-out landscape elements on your sheet of paper.
Remember, the large elements go at the front and the small ones at the back.
The pupils arrange their landscape with their elements on their sheet of paper from near to far (atmospheric perspective).
Check: is this correct?
- Students check each other’s work to see if it is correct. Can the image become a real landscape?
Critical thinking: What was closest to your sheet/image?
Feedback to blackboard diagram:
- what was far away?
- where do large/small landscape elements come from?
Once the teacher has checked it, you can stick it onto the sheet.
Then continue drawing your landscape with a pencil.
The teacher walks around and asks individual pupils various questions about the process.
- why are you putting that element there?
- why is this large element in front?
- why is the small element behind?
- what kind of landscape did you choose and why?
The pupils draw their landscape with a pencil or black pencil, black markers until their chosen landscape is completely visible.
- They only work in black and white, no colour!
How does this develop particular SPIRIT skills
Problem-solving and critical thinking:
Stage 3 is designed in such a way that students must put the knowledge they have acquired in the previous stages (1 and 2) into practice. Without critical thinking, they cannot solve this problem, which involves organising a specific landscape with its own elements into a perspective. It is about making problem-solving thinking explicit and at the same time giving them the tools to form their own answers. This is done in the form of a collage design. Further elaboration through drawing gives them even more opportunities to finish this creatively. Because their own input and the chance of success are high, you automatically have the involvement and motivation of the students in this Steam lesson.
What do we want to achieve regarding SPIRIT skill development (student understanding and/or behaviour)?
As a result of this activity:
- The students are able to verbally explain their visually-based decisions, responding to questions from the teacher or classmates about why they placed a large or small landscape element in a particular spot. (reason-based decision making)
- The student is able to observe, review, and evaluate the work of their peers, deciding and arguing whether a given artwork depicts a “real” landscape.(Critical thinking)
- They are able to thoughtfully assess their choices and their consequences for the final visual result. In this way, their problem-solving thinking becomes explicit (consciously articulated and visible) in practice.
Academic/Curriculum Objective connection
- Design a landscape using simple landscape elements (e.g. meadows, trees, houses, streets, squares, parks, rivers, forests, factories, etc.).
- Describing the space and the location of objects in space using spatial concepts (large/small, near/far).
- Creating an image (2D or 3D) by consciously placing objects in space.
- Using spatial suggestion in 2D: using a horizon in a visual work
Materials and tools needed for implementation
- black and white copies, scissors, A3 drawing paper, glue, drawing pencil, black pencil and/or marker, blackboard diagram.
Preparation notes
This section aims to develop the given SPIRIT skills through the completion of a complex task (cutting, scaling, masking, gluing, drawing). Teacher preparation (both required materials and conceptual) should focus here on preventing cognitive overload and on step-by-step checking.
- Preparing visual contrasts: When printing black-and-white landscape elements, ensure that the size differences are extreme (very small cars/trees and very large cars/trees). If the difference is too small, 7-year-olds will not perceive spatial depth.
- “Rules for gluing: Lay out the pieces and agree on the rules for gluing: students may initially only arrange the cut-out elements on the sheet. They may only glue them down once the teacher or their peers have checked the perspective (large shapes in front, small shapes in back). This promotes trial-and-error-based problem-solving.
- Demonstration of the Horizon Line: During the discussion of the blackboard diagram, do not show a finished picture. Present it step by step: draw a line and ask which part is the sky and which is the ground. Place a small and a large shape on the board and ask the class if they are in the right places, engaging them in critical thinking even before the activity begins.
- Setting up workstations: Arrange the desks into 2×2 “islands.” Set up the space so that students can observe how the person sitting across from them is constructing the landscape.
Guided Questions
- I see you placed this [name the shape] right here, in this spot. Tell me, what’s going to happen in this part, and why is this the absolute best spot for it in your landscape? (why are you putting that element there?)
- Look, this huge shape is right in front of our noses—it’s practically jumping off the page! If I wanted to walk right into your picture right now, how would you explain to me why this thing looks so big here at the bottom of the page? (why is this large element in front?)
- You placed that tiny figure far away. Imagine if we wanted to walk from the bottom of the page all the way over there! Do you think it would take a long time to get there? How does this small figure help make your landscape seem very deep and distant? (why is the small element behind?)
- If we could magically step into your drawing right now, where would we find ourselves: on a bustling street or in a peaceful park? What was the first thing you chose that made you decide to build this particular world? (what kind of landscape did you choose and why?)
Stage Debriefing Questions (Optional)
- When you looked at each other’s creations at the very end, how were you able to decide whether a landscape looked “real” or if there was something “impossible” about it? What common rule did you have in mind regarding the large and small paper shapes that helped you make that decision?
- Everyone received the same black-and-white shapes, yet you arranged them differently in front of and behind (overlapping) each other. If someone were to ask you now why you arranged your landscape exactly the way you did, how would you argue that the your final decision solution is the best?
- Was there a moment while you were arranging things when you placed a form on the paper, but when you took a closer look, you realized, “Oops, this looks really weird!”? What was that, and how did you correct your own idea all by yourself, before you even reached for the glue?
- If tomorrow we had to take a picture of our friends in the yard with a real camera in such a way that one of them looks giant and the other looks very small, how would we actually use the trick we figured out today with the paper shapes?
Tips and Tricks for dealing with stage challenges
- Allow the children to consider the sizes of their cut-out elements by letting them experiment with their landscape image. Therefore, allow them to lay out the sizes and variations before they continue working on their own pieces.
- Encourage them to observe how other groups create and develop their landscapes and consistently engage their critical thinking skills. Encourage them to carefully consider their choices and their consequences.
- Limiting or increasing the number of elements to be cut out makes the assignment easier or more difficult. Adjust this to suit your class.