Creativity Exercise--This Line is A...

Project/Activity: This Line is A...

Age Level: Any

Materials: Several copied sheets of the line paper (see picture below), your medium of choice (crayons, colored pencils, markers, pastels, paints)

Procedure:
1. Introduce students to the line paper. Turn the paper every direction and have the students brainstorm ideas of what the line could be made into. What does the shape remind them of? How could it become a part of something else? How does it change when viewed from another direction? If available, show students several examples of other students work.
2. Give each student a copy of the line page and instruct them to fill the entire paper with their picture, incorporating the line as central part of the design.

Optional Activities:
1. Using their very best handwriting, have students write "This line is a __________". For older students, encourage them to use descriptive words about their subject.

2. This activity may also be done with any random line or shape. Another similar activity that I frequently use is "transforming scissors". For this, I give students a black and white copy of a basic outline of a pair of scissors and instruct them to transform it into a picture of their own.

Teaching tips:
It is important to encourage students in this activity to look beyond their initial ideas and the example pictures. Make it a challenge to do something completely new with the line. With older students, integrate this into their grading. Before I started really stressing the importance of originality, I would end up with 10-15 near duplicates of the example pictures!--Not quite what I was going for with the activity.

Below are some pictures of the original sheets given to the children and examples of a completed scissor sheet. See the top of the page for an example of the completed line project.