Monday, March 21, 2011

Better Together - Fractured Picture Activity

It is "Spirit Week" and we were asked to decorate our doors for the occasion.  
I decided that I wanted to do a Fractured Picture which I learned about from my favorite Professor at UNM, Dr. Elizabeth Nielson.  
This activity is a wonderful community building activity that illustrates the importance of each individual member of the class.

LA LUZ LEOPARDS ARE BETTER TOGETHER!

The first time Dr. Nielson did this with our CDP group she chose an illustration from a children's book.  Seeing as this is spirit week I thought I should use a picture that represents our school and community.
As I was not able to find anything I had to create it myself. 
Here is what I did:

I used Print Shop to piece together the picture of our school mascot and several NM items.
After the picture was done I laminated it to protect the pieces from wear and tear (This is also a great idea if you are going to re-use the pieces next year).


I then turned the picture over and divided it up into 20 sections.  This would change if you had a bigger or smaller class of course.  The important part is that you have one for each student. 

Now you are ready to get started with the kids. 
I placed all the picture pieces into a cup and had each student pick one.  I also gave each student a piece of 8 1/2 x 8 1/2 square computer paper.
With Dr. Nielson we used just standard 8 1/2 x 11 but I just wanted to make it a little easier for my kids.
Ask students to turn over their picture piece and record the number that is on the back on the back of their white paper.

There are only 2 rules to this activity that you have to explain.  

#1 - Only use crayons
#2 - color boldly - this keeps the consistency of the picture once it is placed back together
Students then begin to draw their piece of the picture. 











As they complete their individual pieces they help to put the picture back together using
the numbers on the back of the pictures. 


While I see the benefit it keeping the pieces for a future activity I decided to post mine next to our final project as a reference for students and parents.