HSC Bensonhurst Senior Center HOME Project.20 1/13/2022

 

HSC Bensonhurst Senior Center

HOME Project

Blog 20 1/13/2022

Our seniors’ pop-up Home pages are so ingenious. We enjoy seeing how they take the skills we have taught and use them to invent new ways of doing. As teachers it is important to recognize prior learning and experience, but also acknowledge how much we learn from our students. WeChat is a very useful platform allowing them to share their work and hence learn from and inspire each other. 

Our warmup was a scavenger hunt where the leader took it in turns to ask the group to find 3 objects. We had a lot of fun scrambling around our homes looking for disparate things such as a shoe, chopsticks, glasses case and a book. Next, we reviewed the kitchen pop-up page they finished for homework. 

Hui Fen meticulously made panels on the doors of the cabinets with complimentary colored cardstock. The internal shelves were created using strips of colored cardstock. Jing Wei realistically made a microwave which she glued below the cabinets. Through the kitchen window, she glued an outdoor scene and added translucent material to represent the glass. She used scissors to cut out the frame. Pun made an exhaust fan over the oven and added all the dials and knobs. The refrigerator doors with carefully drawn handles, open to reveal lots of packed food. Ru Ping used perspective when she added a mat and kitchen cabinets. She added a plant on top of the fridge, which is manually lifted. So Sim created a linoleum look on the floor by drawing on the lines. Sook Fong made her refrigerator look more real by adding the brand name. She also included a hot plate on the kitchen bench. 

Stella used wallpaper for the kitchen floor and cut thin strips of blue paper to create the grid pattern. She ingeniously used bubble wrap to create a faucet, then stuck a toothpick in it to facilitate turning it to the wall when she closed the page. Susanna wanted the faucet to stand up, so she set out her page differently with the sink and bench top on the side. She chose complementary brightly colored paper for her kitchen cabinets and medicine cabinet. Lao Yu drew the checkered floor tile pattern herself. She placed a bowl of fruit above the fridge. All the kitchen cabinets are drawn; however, they have a 3D effect. For this refrigerator she made double doors which open out. 

Even though we asked our students just to make a model of a bed and bunk beds, some went further to create their bedroom pop-up page. Hui Fen’s brightly colored bedroom with a large “Spring” Chinese character on the wall reminded the women of a newly-weds bedroom. Jing Wei and Stella added a ladder to their bunk beds. Lao Yu chose a large teddy bear picture and attached it to the wardrobe. She added a bookcase with carefully drawn books and a tiny stool in front of the dresser which included a mirror made from silver paper. So Sim used her own crocheted pillowcase as a model to make a miniature one. She also added a fluffy blanket to the bed. 

They used their sketch books to practice perspective drawing. Using this skill they drew a map of their bedroom, deciding what objects will be 3D and what 2D. Having learnt how to use different shaped boxes to make furniture, which flattened vertically, they learnt a new method of making a 3D object which flattened horizontally, inspired by a wardrobe I had made. Spica demonstrated how to make a closet that flattened across the page. The important consideration here was that the designer makes sure nothing is glued where the wardrobe folds when the page is shut. 

We left the students with the challenge of adding furniture to their bedroom page. No doubt we will be amazed again at their inventiveness!