Literature, Light, and Laser Cutting with Fifth Grade

Fifth graders read the book “The Midwife’s Apprentice” by Karen Cushman as part of their Medieval England study. The book is the story of a young homeless girl who overcomes failure to find hope and her place in the world. Students spent time talking about scenes in the book where the main character Alyce faces challenges and the moments where she overcomes difficulties in life. This became the inspiration for a maker project in the library, a shadow box picture.  A shadow box picture uses simple paper or cardboard cut scenes stacked together and backed with tissue paper to allow the light to shine through and highlight the figures.

The fifth grade teacher and I were inspired by pictures he had found of scenery from plays that used simple backgrounds and colors to express the different moments, emotions and moods that were happening in the play. Could students do the same thing with scenes from the book? Fifth graders would make connections with what was happening in the book during important scenes and make deeper connections with feelings and emotions the characters were going through. Then using simple drawings and different tissue paper colors they would express their understanding of the characters with the shadow frames.

Fifth graders picked an important scene from the book that highlighted overcoming a challenge or a difficult time for Alyce. After they identified a scene, they drew simple pictures. The pictures were outlines of characters or objects from the scene in the book, and connected by one continuous line. Fifth graders needed to be very thoughtful about what they were drawing and how they were illustration the events of the scene. The laser cutter scans the lines that are drawn and then cuts the lines out of different materials, in this case cardboard. Fifth graders needed to draw their scenes in one continuous line for this to work. They really had to think and plan out their illustrations and layers to ensure they were expressing the events of the book.

Students designed two - three layers of action for their picture for the shadow box they created. Then, fifth graders used the new laser cutter in the library to cut out their drawings. Using lots of cardboard from our cardboard closet, students also measured and cut out the frames and layers for their frames. The final step was picking the tissue paper colors that reflected the mood of the scene from the book. Some students used lighter colors to signify that Alyce overcoming a challenge, others chose darker colors to express that Alyce was dealing with a failure or sad time in her life. Fifth graders built their frames, layering their laser cut scenes with cardboard frames and tissue paper.

The final projects are beautiful, light catching shadow boxes that highlight the connections fifth graders made from reading the book. By using simple cardboard and tissue paper materials and the skills they learned using the laser cutter, they produced beautiful shadow boxes. All the shadow frames were displayed in the library hallway windows.