Stacked Sculptures

A couple of weeks ago, our Mini Makers dove into this fun, open-ended sculpture project (the inspiration for this project came from the Art Bar blog).  When they walked into the room, there were cardboard pieces in various shapes and sizes all over the table, pre-hole-punched.  With tempera paint sticks and bright-colored dotters, the young artists filled those shapes with colors.

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While they were working, I read them the book Sandy’s Circus by Tanya Lee Stone. The book is about American artist Alexander Calder, who is known for making colorful, playful sculptures that moved.  That’s pretty much where we were headed as well.

Once our pieces were all full of color, we were ready for the next step. I passed out wooden skewers and a handful of air-dry clay.  They created a ball out of the clay, and then planted the wooden skewer inside.  From there, the young artists could build and stack their sculptures as they saw fit, using the cardboard pieces and small balls of clay..

Lastly, I had liquid tempera paint available to add even more color to their creations.

And here are some of the fun finished products!