What do we achieve with the different forms?
Geometric shapes – helps develop spatial orientation and wakefulness; also helps to develop mathematical thinking.
Spirals – work with centre and periphery, moving from the outside inward or vice versa. Forward and backward walking stimulates and strengthens the (own) senses of movement and of equilibrium. Motor skills are developed and enhanced. Inner imaging is encouraged and positive and negative space is unconsciously experienced.
Symmetry and mirroring – lateralisation- Stars, loops, lemniscates and (later) braided forms experience of in/out and especially helpful for children who reverse letters, do not have above and below established or do not let the letters go beyond the line of writing.
Metamorphoses, finishing unfinished forms – strengthening imaging and flexible thinking and social skills (to be aware of the other)
Rhythmic repetition – estimating distance and becoming aware of relationships in space, experiencing harmony and beauty.
Running forms – increases the development of balance and movement
Woven forms – they work with forward-backward, estimation, self-movement, wakefulness and focus.
GRADE 1
The children first walk the forms before drawing them in the air, in sand or they may feel the forms on sandpaper or trace them on the blackboard with their fingers. Finally, they draw the movements on paper. This also lays the basis for geometry later on in the Sixth Grade.
Form drawing has an awakening effect on the children and leads them out of living in images toward the ability to combine thoughts, evaluating a situation and drawing conclusions.
We see many different forms in nature. Look at the plants, moving water or the movements caused by the wind. They are forms in movement. Then the movement has become visible.
The teacher knows this when letting the children draw the forms. The children will take it in unconsciously and when they are older, they will be able to recognise the forms hidden in the natural phenomena like the spiral in a sea shell.
When children, succeed in putting the movement down on paper as form, they can hardly stop and love to stay in the streaming of creative movement. By the fourth class they love designing their own forms.
Through form drawing spatial orientation and awareness of body geography is practiced, sensory experience and inner picturing abilities enhanced. Eye-hand coordination is integrated with spatial awareness. Motor activity is stimulated. Here we start with the straight line and the curved line in many different patterns and combinations, open and closed forms, also the circle and the triangle, squares, spirals and the lemniscate. Later on the more complex activity of working with loops is introduced. One can incorporate symmetry exercises where there is a mirroring activity between left and right.
Mirroring helps to develop laterality and aids in recognizing the direction of the letters they will need to write. They develop a feeling for direction and proportions. Repetition helps to establish what was learned.
GRADE TWO
Symmetrical exercises are further developed as well as metamorphosing forms and combinations. The children develop a new relationship to space and enjoy making their own forms, for example leaves or flowers. Because the left and right brain spheres are getting better established, they love symmetrical forms. When creating symmetrical forms, the children find a balance between left and right, the centre being the spine. They learn to seek a balance inwardly.
In the first place we work vertically. Always first the experience of the movement, walking, drawings in the air before the forms are done on paper. Draw a centre line and let the child draw to the left and right of the line. Completing a form which is unfinished, provides an excellent opportunity to encourage and strengthen the will. An incomplete form conveys a feeling that something is missing. It is also awakens a sense of beauty and harmony. Children need to estimate the distances.
In the second half of the year horizontal forms that are mirrored upward or downward can be started. All forms can become more complicated and challenging by now. Different metamorphosing exercises are done.
GRADE THREE
It is the time mirroring the forms creates a breathing process between centre and periphery. Three- and four- sided symmetry, inverting from inside outward, geometric forms – drawing a circle freehand, crossing the vertical and horizontal midline, symmetrical forms from left to right or from above downward; bringing two different forms into relation with one another. Finding harmony and balance in their forms is a challenge the children love at this age. More concentration is asked and more differentiation as well.
GRADE FOUR
The children listen to the stories of courage, fearlessness and willpower. In all subjects they are called to show their will and focus.
Again, the forms are getting more complicated like weaving Celtic knots. The illusion of three dimensions develops. Many skills ripen, capacities and perceptions awaken slowly. The Celts used many spiral motifs. It is quite a challenge for the children to keep their focus on the line as it moves rhythmically either ‘over’ or ‘under’ another line and at the same time keep in mind
GRADE FIVE
In the fifth grade the children can draw the shapes from the language of nature. The growth forms in the different types of wood can be discovered. The veins of a leaf have a gesture from the centre to the circumference. Threefold and fivefold symmetry discovered in flowers and fruits. In nature the gesture of the creative Word is become visible. Interest for the forms in nature and in the different cultures is stimulated. Braided patterns are continued and forms drawn from the cultures of India, Persia, Egypt and Greece plant forms.
