Design Thinking Activity: “Design Your Dream T-Shirt”

Objective:

Encourage creativity and problem-solving skills while incorporating language development through designing a personalized T-shirt.

Materials Needed:

• Plain T-shirts or T-shirt templates (paper cutouts)
• Colored markers, fabric paints, or any craft materials available
• Design worksheets (with outlines of T-shirts for drawing)

Steps:

1. Empathize (10 minutes)

• Discussion (5 minutes):
  • Engage the class in a discussion about their favorite types of clothing and what makes a T-shirt special to them.
• Empathy Activity (5 minutes):
  • Show various types of T-shirts and discuss what colors, designs, or features the students like or dislike.

2. Define (10 minutes)

• Group Brainstorm (5 minutes):
  • Divide students into small groups and ask them to brainstorm and write down the key elements they want on their dream T-shirt.
• Sharing Ideas (5 minutes):
  • Each group shares one or two ideas they came up with for their T-shirt design.

3. Ideate (15 minutes)

• Individual Idea Generation (10 minutes):
  • Provide design worksheets with T-shirt outlines and ask students to sketch their dream T-shirt designs using the ideas generated in the previous step.
• Pair Sharing (5 minutes):
  • Pair students to discuss their designs, explaining their choices in simple English.

4. Prototype (20 minutes)

• Creation Time (15 minutes):
  • Distribute plain T-shirts or T-shirt templates and art supplies.
  • Encourage students to start creating their T-shirt designs using markers, fabric paints, or craft materials.
• Work-in-Progress Sharing (5 minutes):
  • Allow students to showcase their work-in-progress designs to their peers, describing their ideas in basic English.

5. Test (10 minutes)

• Peer Feedback (5 minutes):
  • Pair students again and ask them to provide positive feedback on each other’s designs, using simple phrases like “I like how…” or “This part is cool because…”
• Self-Reflection (5 minutes):
  • Students individually reflect on their design process, noting what they liked about their design and what they might change if they had more time.

Conclusion:

Encourage students to wear their finished T-shirts or display their paper templates, celebrating their creativity and design efforts.

Assessment:

Evaluate students based on their active participation in discussions, the creativity displayed in their designs, their ability to express ideas in English, and their engagement in the design process.

This Design Thinking activity fosters creativity, problem-solving, and language development by allowing children to design their dream T-shirt while incorporating simple English communication related to their designs. Adjust the complexity of the activity based on the A1 level proficiency of the students and their comfort with expressing themselves in English.