Ndebele Inspired Designs (5th Grade)

These beautiful symmetrical designs are inspired by the house painting of the Ndebele tribe. The class discussed the meaning behind the Ndebele house painting and how their designs are comprised of Geometric shapes and bright, bold colors. Then each student created their own symmetrical design! Some of these are unfinished, but I'm happy with how they're turned out, especially since this was my first attempt at teaching this lesson!

Vocab: symmetry/symmetrical, radial symmetry, geometric, organic, shape, line, color

Optical Design (5th & 6th)

5th and 6th grade are learning all about Op Art! As part of this unit, they must complete an optical illusion of their own and add color to make it look 3D. These are just rough draft pieces, but they show how students have already progressed in their use of line, color, and value.

5th Grade Block Still Life

For this project, students worked at their tables to construct a tower or towers out of geometric shapes. Once their buildings were constructed they were shown a demonstration of how to complete and observational drawing of their buildings. The buildings were described as a still life.

The results were fantastic, despite a few of the towers being accidentally knocked down during the drawing process! Some groups made many small towers and were able to draw more than one during the class period.

Students used only crayons and pencils to create their final pieces, and were encouraged to try and match the colors as closely as possible. There was a lot of excellent sharing during this activity.

Geometric Shapes - Shapes made with points and lines. "Shapes with a name" such as squares, triangles, rectangles, diamonds, etc.
Observational Drawing - Looking at the subject and drawing what is presented to the eye.
Still Life - A painting or drawing of an arrangement of objects. In this case the objects are colorful geometric shape blocks.