Lesson Plan 3 | Children Art

Creative Pencil Box

This activity can be used in a one class format or can be expanded into a 2-3 day project.

Age Group: Middle school and up

Time Length: 60-90 minutes

Objectives:

Students should be able use different crafts objects to portray their personality.
Students should have a concrete understand of their personality and can explain why they used certain craft objects.
Students should be able to use either Adobe Illustrator or Coreldraw to understand how to laser cut.
Students should be able to brainstorm and plan a design in detail before creating. it.

Materials

Finger joint box template

Wood

Paper

Pencil

Adobe Illustrator or Coreldraw

Laser Cutter

Paint & Paint brushes

Glitter

Stickers

Arts and craft materials: googly eyes, foam shapes, beads, string, etc.

*Optional* Teaching Assistant

**Before teaching this class make sure to test the potential timing and errors before using in the class.

Use the website http://www.makercase.com/ to pre-create the template you wish for the students to use. The older the group the more flexible the teacher can be with allowing choice in dimensions for students.

Class Example

The teacher should show the class an example of their own personalized pencil box holder. The teacher should explain why they used certain embellishments and cut designs to personalize their box. The teacher should then give a step by step tour, with a paper for students to follow, on how to use software and equipment to cut or raster.

Class Activity

The teacher should then provide paper examples of the template so that the students can plan how to design their pencil box with the laser cutter. This will ease the process of actually using the computer software to design their pencil boxes.

*During the time of the activity the teacher should survey the room to see if any students need help

*As students are working on their project, if the teacher notices a student using the software or crafts to creatively design, share and point this out to the class.

Sharing & Assessment

(After a few hours or days) Students should then be given time to present their work and sketches. The student should explain what their goal was for their pencil case, why they designed their pencil box they did, and then assess what skills they learned from this experience. Classmates should comment on what they like about other students work and provide feedback on potential ways students could have better facilitated their goals/plans.

*Laser Cutters are not perfect and projects do not always come out as planned. The environment of the classroom should focus around embracing failures, improvising/problem-solving, and collaborative support.

Community Innovation (Project)

This class activity is a project that should be done over a span of several days, depending on the student’s’ ability to grasp concepts and produce work.

Age Group: High school and up

Objectives

Students should be able to creatively think about an existing and develop a new purpose and design how to change
Students should be able to under how to use and manipulate the laser cutter to either cut or raster.

Materials

Maker/Thingspace

Computer and Internet

Laser Cutter

Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw

Array of materials (wood, acrylic, cardboard, paper, etc) - for cutting

Activity

*Before introducing this activity to the class, make sure that the teacher has created their own example and check the internet for a rich array of examples. The teacher should document their entire experience to model planning. The goal is to have the students think creatively and independently.

As a class go to http://www.instructables.com/ and explore what functions the community has and what are its potential benefits. Also, discuss the difference between innovation and plagiarizing in art. Have the classroom define it together and write defining differences and examples on the board. The teacher should then give a step by step tour, with a paper for students to follow, on how to use software and equipment to cut or raster.

Have students go on instructable themselves and find a design they like and then ask them to modify it for themselves to give it a new purpose or aesthetic. Remind them of the teacher examples and other examples that can be found on the internet. If students are stuck, suggest doing research themselves to find inspiration. Once the students have chosen their object to innovate, they should then create a detail plan of how they plan to achieve their goal. The teacher can use their documented steps to show students what and how to plan. Then based on what they plan to innovate will determine the needed materials and what the students must do afterwards. Before the students continue with their work, they should consult (discuss feasibility, resources, and time constraints) with a peer and then a teacher about their project.

Sharing and Assessment

After works have been completed students should present their work to the class. They should state what their initial goal was and if they were able to accomplish it, if not explain why. The student should also be able to discuss how their project is a remix or innovate based on the definitions the class defined previously. Also, students should assess what skills they learned from this experience. Classmates should comment on what they like about other students work and provide feedback on potential ways students could have better facilitated their goals/plans.