A Design Puzzle for Kindergarten in the Art Room

Students at every grade level in the Lower School engage in design thinking in the art room. From the youngest friends balancing wood blocks to create a sculpture, to the oldest students working collaboratively to create a series of characters and sets, lower school students are developing their craftsmanship skills as well as their critical thinking skills while creating their artwork.

The kindergarteners have been engaged with playing with puzzles and games in their classroom, and that curiosity has carried over to the art room. The kindergarteners began designing their very own puzzles in art class, by coloring with permanent color markers on a blank white puzzle. The young artists picked the subject matter of their choice, but had to consider what type of drawing would make a good puzzle. 

 

 

They concluded that every piece should be colored in on at least some spaces, and that the colors should extend to the piece next to it, so that you could look for clues when doing the puzzle. Some friends were very interested in making their puzzle difficult to put together, so they carefully colored smaller shapes, while others wanted to create one larger image that would be easier to assemble. Helping students to think through the next steps and imagine designing an object for someone to use builds upon their ability to predict future outcomes and have empathy by imagining a situation through someone else's eyes. 

 

The kindergarteners next steps will be to design a box to contain their puzzle pieces, so they can do their puzzles (and maybe stump) their friends and family!