3-D Block Letters

I wanted to so a short project with my 5th graders that worked with some perspective and using rulers because I noticed that many of them seemed really rusty.  When I asked how many of them knew how to draw letters or shapes in 3-D and only a couple students raised their hands...I knew it was time.  I had come across a fun little 3-D name project on the Dali's Moustache Blog @http://dalimoustache.blogspot.com/search/label/5th%20grade (which is a super amazing blog by the way, and if you haven't seen it yet you really need to check it out).

Since part of the problem was the 5th graders not knowing how to use their rulers properly (seems crazy I know but honestly I had kids flipping it back and forth between inches and centimeters with a super confused look on their face saying "way are some of these numbers super small?" YIKES) so I made them all measure out a grid on their paper in which we would be drawing our block letters.  Students could either use their name or nicknames.  After creating a rectangle with divisions every 1-2", depending on how many letters their name had in it, we drew a center line to help us judge where to draw our letters.  I had handouts of the alphabet in block letters for students to look at and did a demonstration for the whole class, explaining how I would draw five different block letters, I let the students choose which five letters they wanted to see.  They gave their best efforts to draw the block letters as I tried to help out as many as possible.

In the next class we talked about one point perspective and how three dimensional things seem to extend back into space.  I did a demonstration and passed out some examples showing one point perspective examples on some letters and shapes.  Most students picked up on it really well and finished with time to spare.

In the last class, I showed students how to make their letters end, so that they do not look like they extend all the way back to the vanishing point.  If they liked how it looked going all they way back to the vanishing point I allowed them to keep it like that but most wanted to make their letters look like true block letters.  I gave a demo and let them at it.  This was by far the most difficult part but the students did a great job helping each other out and working together.  I also showed students how to shade in the letters to make them look even more convincingly 3-dimensional.  We talked about shadows and where they would be cast in our letters.  I used caves and valleys as examples for the shading and that seemed to work well.  The students colored them in, cut them out and mounted them on a background paper.  It wasn't the most aesthetically pleasing project but that also wasn't the goal, the goal was to get better with rulers, measuring, and learn how to use one point perspective.  Overall, a SUCCESS!!