Negative Space "Chairs"

Image by JCardinal18 via Flickr

Hard to believe this time last year I didn't really know what a "blog" was. Now I'm hooked on blogs! When I came across Anne Harwell's blog (love it!) called Annechovie I was thoroughly inspired by her beautiful "chair" art, so I had my students create their own "chair" art. And since the students were learning about the creation of the U.S. Constitution, we decided to draw the chair that George Washington sat in during the Constitutional Convention in 1787.

("History Alive! The United States Through Industrialism" student edition, by Teacher's Curriculum Institute /TCI)

Before we started drawing the chair, we talked about the concept of "negative space". I told the students that we would be drawing the "negative space" in the chairback to get the look of the fancy pieces of wood that make the chair. I helped them understand negative space by drawing some "positive" triangles, but then turning them into "negative" spaces after enclosing them in a box.

The end result is a "positive" space "X" and the triangles are negative spaces.


Here are some of the students' fabulous chairs. (Bummer, no time for color.)

According to the kids' textbook,

"During the convention, Benjamin Franklin wondered if the sun painted on the back of George Washington's chair was rising or setting. At the conclusion of the convention, Franklin optimistically concluded it was a rising sun."

I loved learning about the Constitutional Convention during this lesson, and I can now say I "pretty much" understand the Electoral College.

Thanks Flamson Middle School students!