Written by Barkha Sharda
Line and Circle is a book by Tulika Publications that discusses the fascinating concepts of both line and circle and the combining of the two for more images and designs. This book uses a very basic method to both familiarize and encourage children to work with forms through lines and circles. As the two forms come together to create innovative collaborations of lines as well as circles, the narrative in the story builds on the concept to make an interesting story.
We used the story both at MOP and with the ‘Story-Book-Art’ children. At the Tonca MOP, we used the story for both the junior MOP and the older children. The children were fascinated with the idea of line and circle and how one could see them in almost everything around. The children listened to the story patiently telling me the local terms for circle and line. At the end of the story I gave the children circle cut outs, strips of paper, smaller circles and a rectangle with a circle cut out of it. It was interesting how the children thought that the circle cut out of a sheet was a hole and not a circle. When I put the cut out back in the ‘hole’ the children saw the circle emerge! The children then drew various images using both line and circle. They made the Sun with the rays, sunflowers, some made sceneries and some others just made innovative designs. The older children identified form made with lines and circles and wrote about the forms.
At the ‘Story-Book-Art’ session with the younger children we started with discussing bangles, pens, rulers, a circular lid of a jar etc. The children pointed out to me the fan, a clock and other objects around them that were made of lines and circles. I had cut out a circle from a rectangle and stuck it on a bigger sheet of paper wherein there the circle hole was filled. I painted a woman’s face in the circle using a line for a nose and circles for eyes. I also showed the children an A4 sheet of paper on which I had made a grandfather’s clock which when folded turned into a wall clock and if further folded turned into a wrist watch. This really grabbed all the attention of the children as they tried to figure out how I had managed it!
The activity for this session was to make a photo frame with these forms. The children were given four strips of paper and acrylic paints and oil pastels. They were asked to decorate the strips with only lines and circles. Then the children were given a big circle cut-out and were asked to use stick figures to make a family portrait and label the members. After the strips dried they were stuck together in the form of a rectangular frame. A transparent rectangular sheet was pasted behind the frame and the circular portrait made by the children was put together. The children were both thrilled and filled with a great feeling of accomplishment at the end of the session. The book continues to be a great support in explaining the concepts and brings joy to more children as the story is shared and disseminated amongst the new groups of children.
