—Lesson plan—
I have a nifty trick for helping students see objects in foreshortened perspective.
I draw a square, with blue Sharpie, in the middle of a piece of acrylic. By the way, I have a stack of acrylic rectangles with rounded edges, maybe 12" x 20" or so, that I use for palettes and monoprinting plates. We use them for the ink transfer lessons, too. Anyway, I draw a square on one with blue Sharpie. Then on another, I draw a sideways trapezoid of the same height as the square with a red Sharpie.
One-by-one, I have the students place the two plates on edge on the table in front of them, with the trapezoid perpendicular to their eyes, and the square behind and turned away at an angle, as though the two were covers of an open book.
They can all get to a position (one-at-a-time) where the two shapes become exactly superimposed and turn into one trapezoid.
Once they have seen this, then I can hold up objects in perspective and they get it.
Like most of my lesson plans, this works for kids and adults, but works best for children around nine years or older. I'll introduce perspective to them younger; it's okay if they don't get it right way. This is a great way to introduce the "Coins in space/falling checkers" lesson plan.
