Composing and Gluing Our 3-D Forms as Dream Houses

Composing and gluing 3-D wooden forms

We started this week to compose and arrange our 3-D wooded forms as dream houses. The previous explorations allowed my students to reflect today on what they had done and how they had worked. Many now knew they could compose a structure that had both an inside and an outside, that they could build forms that had height, width and depth. In my demo for this week's lesson, I introduced them to wood glue and explained because of the weight of the material we would need to hold our forms to the count of ten to ensure they had time enough to bond. It was wonderful to witness how they all had to slow down and wait for the glue to set before they could move on. It may not look like an important moment but it is. Patience, care and persistence are habits of mind and one of the hallmarks in a studio classroom setting. A very important experience for a child to have, over and over again.

We had gallery walks at the end of these lessons so that we could all see what we had done in the round. By walking and viewing these works from different angles in the room, my students were able to have different close observations of one or more pieces. This allowed the reflections and how the language that was used to be more varied, it also added the depth of contact that was needed when trying to speak of the physical/emotional nature of space.

Some of the reflections sounded like this:

"From this side I see a sphere but from this side I don't."

" Over here, there are blocks stacked high, behind them there are more."

" I can't see what is under the column. I can see only what is on top."

" I like all the spheres in the front and all the columns in the back."