Blog #4

Blog #4

Patterns occur when shapes, lines, or colours for example are repeated in a regular sequence. I explored my neighborhood looking for examples of patterns, and found them to be everywhere! In particular I liked the pattern on a large vent outside my apartment building. It tickled me that something so practical and utilitarian actually had such a pretty and interesting pattern to it. So even mundane objects may have fascinating patterns, and in fact mundane objects can be transformed by pattern. It got me thinking of how children could make their classrooms more beautiful and more personal using patterns. When I was younger, one of my teachers had us create “treasure chests” to store our favourite work in. We had sponges shaped like fish, pirate skulls, mermaids, seashells and so forth and we dipped them in paint to decorate the boxes that were going to be our treasure chests. An activity such as this, where children are encouraged to create patterns by alternating or sequencing shapes to make something practical into something beautiful, would be a great activity in a classroom! It could be a perfect way to make portfolio’s of children’s artwork reflect all of the creativity that will be stored inside.