Tangram Shapes & Relationships

White Pine Trees I gained a valuable insight about naming things from a group of male, inner-city teenagers who I joined me, during my twenties, when I was co-leading wilderness camping groups. Each morning would start around the campfire with a reading, then we'd do the morning tree: we'd look at bark, shape of the…

Tangram-ing?

Relationships and Connections. Bean plants, hollyhocks, and mustard flowers If you've joined me for my first two tangram posts, here's some context for the next 4 or 5 of them. I started them out, thinking the previous and upcoming tangram posts as, primarily, a rich activity for children. As I'm planning them out, it occurs…

Paper Rods: Something from Almost Nothing

At this time of year I'm usually working in a summer programs, trying out new projects with kids without the time constraints of being in classrooms. The projects that kids connect to the most become part of what I do with my arts-in-ed sessions in the schools. Turns out that just because there's no summer…

Recalculating a Failed Workflow

Each year, as part of a bookmaking project with sixth graders, I bring in my impressive assortment of paper punches, and let the students decorate their handmade books with a colorful array of  items which include stars, crescents, hearts and creatures. It can be a wild free-for-all, with some students slapping on their paper-punched creations…