Communities and cooperative learning

On Friday we began the next stage of our collaborative wallhanging- community applique/embroideries! When I arrived Cindy was in the midst of a review of the 3 types of communities: rural, suburban, and urban, and was discussing some problems and solutions related to life in each place. Using the color-coded selections of base fabrics I'd brought in for our artmaking, Cindy let each child pick out a fabric with their eyes closed to sort the class into cooperative learning groups. We had a "rural" group of 7 students, 2 "suburban" groups of about 5 students each, and an "urban" group of 7. Once divided up, the students were given a large sheet of paper to come up with 2 problems and solutions each, and a sentence describing life in that locale from each student. Cindy, the reading specialist, and I worked with each group to help keep them on track and mediate the suggestions.

one of the suburban teams



the urban team was talking about crime



another suburban team brainstorms problems and solutions

the rural team works with Ms O'Donnell

each team's report page posted on the board

With the reports on the board we focused on what it was like to live in each place, and what we might see. The rural areas had wide open spaces, lots of trees and fields, and very few houses. The suburban spaces had more houses and businesses, but there was still space between the buildings, yards, and parks. The urban spaces were crowded and noisy, with tall skyscrapers and row homes all in a row, old and new, fancy and run-down, with lots of businesses and places to work. With each description we closed our eyes and imagined what it would like. I had a sample fabric collage for each community type to use as examples of how the compositions might look. I described the concept of applique and collage, and we compared fabric and stitching to paper and glue. I showed the kids the pre-cut squares of fabric, and we figured out some different geometric and organic shapes we could make from the squares. We also brainstormed what the fabric patterns could represent in our communities- an animal fabric could be a vet's office or shelter, a musical notes fabric could represent a music store of concert hall, a red fabric could be a barn or a brick rowhome, money fabric could represent a bank or a store..... With so many ideas bouncing around, the kids were ready to get started. They remained in their groups, and each group was instructed to create an applique composition representing their community type and its features. Cindy and I went around showing the kids how to pin the pieces down so they wouldn't get lost.

Angelica's urban composition with lots of overlapping buildings

 Cindy reminded the kids that this step was the "Main idea" part of the project- simple building shapes with big blocks of color, and warned them not to get too detailed or fiddly.

Emily's rural composition with LOTS of open space



Erin's suburban composition has a school and 2 nicely spaced houses



The suburban team focused on cutting out and placing shapes

The children really understood how different the sense of space was in each type of community, as evidenced by the compositions they created. I was afraid lots of pieces would get lost, so I brought the stack of collages home to zip through the machine and anchor down the tiny pieces. Next time the students will have a chance to embroider details on their towns. 

Lots of open space and few houses in the rural images

some more variety and business in the suburban groups-
 almost everybody included a "school"

The urban compositions are very busy and crowded
lots of overlapping pieces and fabrics representing shops

I felt this was an extremely productive and well-organized day. The students worked well in these more random groupings, and I felt that they really "got it". I've noticed that people of all age groups really respond to fabric collage- it's so connected to our familiarity with things like quilts, that composition comes naturally, moreso than when working with paper.