Joyful Geometry
Special NOTE: At 3 pm EST September 28 I will do a 20-30 minute live zoom tour of my show. Join me at https://us04web.zoom.us/j/73281685909?pwd=SUgwZGc2R096VndpSXpraVRPdURVUT09
Sometimes it's hard to write about something because these is too much to say. This wall piece at my show here in Salem NY has so much of my personal history intertwined in it that it's not hard to begin but it's hard to know how much to say . Mindful of the patience of my readers, rather than stuffing everything into one post I suspect I will revisit this in various ways in the coming year. Still, I'm stuffing in quite a bit, albeit in a condensed way.
For decades I've been doing cut-paper geometry with children. Except for one incredibly annoying part of the lesson (more about that at the end of this post) children and teacher have loved this part of what I've brought to the classroom. It's always the most joyful part of my time with students.
Frieze border Book Cover 2002, by a first grader
At some point in time I became intensely impressed by the natural inclination of young children to make symmetrical designs. Also, it was clear that making these designs made both the children and the adults in the room feel happy!
Wall Art and Women, Patty and friend
Buoyed by the work I've done with children, I've done more and more of this cut-paper geometric-shapes work. I started these wall pieces for the show by making lots of bookmark sized pieces.
Geometry all over the place
After making lots and lots of designs I set them out more neatly.
Geometry at rest
Next (and note that this process happened over a period of months) I made choices of who will be elevated to the big time.
The Chosen
Finally, I chose a scale factor, cut out lots of shapes and started the poster size pieces.
Scaling up
Joyful Geometry (I wrote out the words Joyful Geometry so many times that I finally shortened it to JG, which pleased me no end as those are the initials of one of my very favorite math friends whose work I've saved over and over again, identifying him as JG)
I called these four poster sized assemblages Joyful Geometry because I've noticed that there is something about geometry that tends to make people feel good.
When a friend came to see the show her first comment to me about these pieces was that she'd like a T- Shirt with these designs on it. Well, SAME HERE!
I happen to like wearing T-shirts, I just don't often find ones that I really like. Which brings me to the next part of this post: I uploaded designs to a print-on demand t-shirt site and I've started ordering. I am telling you this in case you'd like to order one too BUT only order if you want one as I only make a dollar or two on each order.
My friend has already ordered her first T-shirts, but she asked why would I bother with this site if I only make a dollar or two per shirt. Well, silly, it's so I can have t-shirts that I like. I have two already, and have ordered a third. They run small so order up, and if you still order wrong this company is totally committed to making you happy, so you can simply make an exchange. https://www.teepublic.com/user/bookzoompa
NOW that's not all.
You will be hearing more about this next part in the coming months.
At the top of the post I mentioned that there is one incredibly annoying thing that is part of the cut-paper geometry lessons that I do with children. Here's the rub: to do the lesson I have to precisely cut so many little pieces of paper that it makes me crazy. I do it, though, because it's such a great lesson.
Now, what I'm going to tell you next is so exciting. THANK YOU for reading this far.
Last January I started having brainstorming meetings with Trish Witkowski, who you may know from her fifteen years of paper-folding foldfactory videos, Super Cool Fold of the Week. Trish wanted to add to her line of kid and classroom friendly paper-punch out packets, and was looking to do something to support math skills.
Now, months later, I will never again have to cut out little pieces of paper for classes. Look at what Trish has in her line up of products:
Available through Amazon or at FreshCutCrafts.com
This is a truly brilliant product. I've tested them out with first graders. The packet if full of domino shapes (which are double squares), circles and hexagons which are easily popped out of bright cover weight papers. There are fine perforations on shapes to decompose the larger shapes into smaller ones. Just perfect for making designs, and for becoming familiar with the shapes of math. I brought a pack of these to the Bridges Math and Art conference in Richmond this past August. Everyone who saw them pulled in a chair and had a great time working with this product. And every time I pull them out I have a great time working things out. I'm filling up notebooks. More about this soon.
To end this very long post with very beautiful photos, I want to send love to my friend Jenny who let me lift this photo from her Instagram page. Now, really, ask yourself, just seeing these math shapes in the background (which were originally a Paper Source window display, but are now in Jenny's place), don't you feel a shot of joy? Or maybe it's just Jenny that inspires that joy. Hard to say.
Jenny, Lemons, and Math Shapes
My show runs for just a few more days. It's been such fun.
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