Recycled Materials Art Project

The preschoolers used recycled materials from the art studio to make vertical sculptures today. 

The children were given a piece of cardboard, wood pieces, and colored glue.  

They were asked to make a stacked tower out of the pieces on the table.  We talked about putting the big pieces on the bottom and smaller pieces on top so that the sculpture would not fall over.

We used many different colors of glue which we poured over our sculptures.

The children made some really colorful and amazing sculptures today!

Clay Exploration

As the classrooms use play dough a lot, this week we explored clay.  We noticed that clay is dense and heavy unlike play dough.  It is cold and wet feeling.  It dries up quickly and smells like dirt. 

But it holds shape and sculpts well.  It's fun to poke, scrape, roll, and squish. We used clay to make coil and pinch pots which we will later paint when they dry.  

In addition, we used some clay tools and pouch caps to explore the clay in a different way.  The children had fun creating designs and patterns in the clay as they tried all the tools on the table.  They watched each other try new things and tried them themselves.  They shared their ideas and thoughts on how to make familiar and unfamiliar shapes. 

Clay is an amazing and versatile medium and one we will explore in new and challenging ways in the future.  

Alberto Giacometti

In an effort to do a lesson on Giacometti, I showed the children some of his sculptures, gave them pipe cleaners, and tin foil, and a poseable figure. 

I thought the lesson would go one way with the children bending the pipe cleaners into a figure and wrapping it with foil but class went a different way when they began decorating the poseable figure instead.  This was fun, too.  

Spiky Ball Sculptures

We gathered these spiky balls from the ground outside.  I don't know what tree they come from but there are a ton of them on the ground. 

The children stuck a toothpick them and into a block of Styrofoam.  I gave them glue paint and collage materials to make fun sculptures.  

Clay Exploration

We explored clay this week. I offered the children chunks of clay, clay tools, and natural materials to explore.