Line Assessment

Kinder and 1st grades are winding up their line unit so time for evaluation! Students began their study of line by painting lines on the outside walls with water as a warm-up to using markers. After their line project drawings (which provide evidence of their ability to draw the 4 types of line taught: straight, curve, angle and broken) I assess to see if they know the vocabulary and can identify/sort the varieties before moving on to the next unit...

They play a quick version of the 'line game' I've written about in an earlier post. Directions for the test version are to hold up a card that illustrates the line I've asked them for. I glance to see if it's correct (they can have do-overs and I make note of errors on first attempt) then they place it on their corner of the table. After we've gone through all 4 of the choices, I walk the room & quickly glance to see how many they have correct laid out on the table corners. For kinders, we do the 'test' twice - first time through is a practice.

Next, each student is given one ball of plasticine clay and a placemat. The first class of the day needs to warm the clay by squeezing the ball - so we practice squeezing in the left hand then the right hand and so on until we've done about 10 squeezes. This softens the clay enough for their hands. I show them how to 'pinch' the clay between their thumb and curled fingers to break it into smaller pieces for our work. During this assessment, they are asked to make the lines using clay.

I demonstrate how to roll the clay between their upright hands using 2- 3 pieces of their pinched-off clay to create a coil. The first coil is labeled 'straight' and placed in the corner of the mat. The second coil is torn into pieces to create a broken line.

This is followed by a coil transformed into a curve line. Last is the angle line - I demonstrate how to use the coil to create the letter 'Z' by pinching the corners to make the sharp corners found in an angle line.

I pressed my examples onto the white board for easy reference...

Creating lines in 3 dimensions helps them apply their knowledge in a new way and gives me another opportunity to assess their fine motor skills. Sometimes, it also leads to a conversation with our Occupational Therapist for those students who simply can't manage squeezing and pinching of the clay....

Of course, all this hard work was followed up with extra practice for those little fingers...