The creation of the display shown below takes place in two parts:
1) Making lots of small diamonds
To decorate your display, you will need lots of small diamonds, which can be created using the following method:
1) On a piece of paper, draw a horizontal 8 cm line. Make a mark at every cm on the line.
2) Through the centre mark, draw a vertical 8cm line, with 4cm above and 4cm below the first line. Also, make marks at every cm on this line.
3) Now focus on the area in the top-right and ignore the rest of the cross. Get a ruler and a coloured pen / pencil, and draw a straight line from the first mark at the top of the vertical line to the first mark on the left of the horizontal line.
4) Now draw straight lines:
- second mark at the top of the vertical line to the second mark on the left of the horizontal line.
- third mark at the top of the vertical line to the third mark on the left of the horizontal line.
- fourth mark at the top of the vertical line to the fourth mark on the left of the horizontal line.
5) Turn your picture around at repeat steps 3 and 4 until you have completed the whole picture. You could use different colours for each section or even colour in the spaces created.
More able children might also be able to make a number of varieties (larger diamonds, diamonds with more lines, diamonds inside squares).
6) When the children have made lots of these, cut them out so that they can be stuck on your display (see below).
2) Making the large diamond
To make your large diamond, you will need lots of pins / thumb tacks, a very long ruler, wool or string and lots of patience!
1) Draw a cross on your display – the size of the cross will depend on the size of your display. Make sure that both lines on the cross are the same length and that the lines cross EXACTLY at their centres.
2) Now, make marks every 2cm on your cross with a pen, and stick a pin / thumb tack at every mark – this can be very boring and will give you sore fingers, but the end result is well worth it!
3) Choose the colour of wool that you want to use, and tie it around the first pin at the top of the display. Now, in a similar way to the small diamonds (focussing on one section at a time), bring the wool down to the first pin (on the left of the top-right section) on the horizontal line. Wrap it around once, and bring the wool up to the second-highest pin on the vertical line. Wrap it around, and go back down to the second pin on the horizontal line. Repeat this procedure, moving DOWN the vertical line and RIGHT across the horizontal line. When you finish one section, continue in the same way for the other three sections (using different coloured wool if you wish).
When I made the display below, I started each section myself and allowed individual children to come up and wrap the wool around a few pins on the display. They were all amazed at the finished product which they had worked together to create.
4) Now stick the children’s smaller diamonds all over your display, stand back and admire your classes’ work!