Notans

Fifth graders are finishing up their first Japanese inspired project, notans! A notan is a Japanese concept involving the play and placement of light and dark as they are placed next to each other.

 Students began by drawing designs on a square of black paper. Once everything was drawn students then cut out the designs and begin assembling on a larger white piece of paper. As students begin  to glue the cut out shapes each piece becomes the mirror image of the negative space. The idea of positive and negative space was a big concept with our notans.