Introduction Working in three dimensions gives children the opportunity to practise skills such as planning and problem solving, fixing and joining, shaping and assembling. This is an art form that involves imagination and the technology of transformation as children explore how to change an object, or a collection of objects, into something else. Sculpture can be done on a small or large scale, by an individual or collaboratively. The key to inspiring children to work in 3D is to have a wide variety of interesting and unusual resources available and to embrace each child’s creative ideas. Sculpture activities The following activities are designed to inspire practitioners and children to have a go at sculpture. They are open-ended, often with no fixed end product in mind, but rather to experience the creative process. Modelling Realises tools can be used for a purpose, (Development Matters in the EYFS, Expressive Arts and Design, 30-50 months, p.44) Manipulates materials to achieve a planned effect, (Development Matters in the EYFS, Expressive Arts and Design, 40-60+ months, p.44) The following activities can be done using clay, salt dough, play dough or plasticine. Try adding glitter to homemade dough. Kneading, rolling and squishing – give the children some time to experiment and play with some modelling material. Have a go at rolling, making sausages and spirals, kneading with your palms and knuckles, rolling balls etc. Using tools – provide a selection of tools, rollers, cutters, plastic forks, teaspoons – anything that can be used to manipulate the modelling material – cut it, prod it, flatten it, make a pattern in it etc. Let the children explore what they can do with these tools. Adding interest – using clay or another modelling material as a base, offer the children a wide selection of things to poke and stick into it: feathers, sequins, lolly sticks, straws, beads, pipe cleaners, googly eyes. Or have a go with natural materials: leaves, shells, stones, acorns, pine cones, twigs. Making an impression – clay works best for this – explore with the children what happens when you press an object into a piece of flat clay. Offer them some interesting objects to try – shells, pine cones, a plastic fork, the wheels of a toy car. Making pots – have a go at thumb pots and coil pots. If you use air drying clay or salt dough that can be baked in the oven to go hard the children could paint them and finish them with a layer of P.V.A. glue. Making creatures – inspire the children with pictures of mini beasts, a story book about aliens, or some small world animals. Offer them interesting things to add to their creations, such as googly eyes, pipe cleaners, feathers, as well as supporting them as they try to join one piece of clay or dough to another. Plaster of Paris/Modroc bandages – cut modroc bandages into strips. Show the children how to dip them into a tray of water and smooth them over a base structure. The children could use plastic yogurt pots or twisted wire as their base. Talk with the about the changes as the modroc dries. The children might like to paint their models when they are hard. Paper mache – make an easy paste by mixing one part flour to two parts water. The children can mix the paste themselves and tear up the newspaper too. Blown up balloons make a good mould for the paper mache, or large bowls lined with cling film. When dry, the mould can be removed and the children will be left with a sphere or dome to decorate (www.theartfulparent.com). Paper Constructs with a purpose in mind, using a variety of resources, (Development Matters in the EYFS, Expressive Arts and Design, 40-60+ months, p.44). Pleats and curls – have a go at folding paper over and back on itself to pleat it into a fan. Try curling strips of paper tightly round a pencil and then letting go to make it curled. The children can used these techniques to make paper sculptures: stick or staple pleats together to make wings for a bird or flowers, stick curled paper onto card to make a sculpture. Slot models – show the children how to turn two pieces of card into a 3D model. Cut a slot going up from the bottom of one piece of card, ending half way up, and down from the top of the other piece of card, also ending half way up. Use these slits to slot the pieces of card together. The children can use this simple technology to make lots of paper based sculptures. Mobiles – inspire the children by bringing in some mobiles and hanging them up where the children can see them. Show them some pictures of mobiles by the American sculptor and pioneer of the mobile, Alexander Calder (1890-1976) – for example ‘Red, Blue, Black Cascade’ 1974. The children might like to have a go at making their own mobile in the style of Alexander Calder. Provide coat hangers or some doweling sticks to hang things from. The children can choose coloured card and cut out shapes, then use thread to hang them from their stick or wire hanger. They may like to explore the idea of mobiles over time. Offering wool, string, tape, hole punches and card will give them the opportunity to have a go at stringing cut out shapes together and hanging them up. Origami – fold a paper aeroplane. Have fun with the children trying out different folds and then flying them inside or outside. The children might like to hang them up with thread. Construction Selects tools and techniques needed to shape, assemble and join materials they are using. (Development Matters in the EYFS, Expressive Arts and Design, 40-60+ months, p.44) Construction toys – toys such as Lego, wooden bricks, plastic blocks or linking straws provide opportunities to explore and practise fixing and joining, balancing, problem solving and creating. Big boxes – collect lots of bigger cardboard boxes. The children can take them outside and build walls, towers, cars, aeroplanes, houses. They can also have lots of fun knocking them down and starting again! Grapes and tooth picks – grapes make great ‘joints’ for constructing. Stick tooth picks into the grapes, joining them to other tooth picks until you have a sculpture. This can also be done with potatoes and willow sticks, making larger constructions that the children can move in and out of (www.theartfulparent.com). Wire sculptures – provide wire that is easy to manipulate. Children can bend, twist and wind it together, wrap it around other objects, thread it with beads, stick it into plasticine or clay. Wood – collect scraps of wood of all shapes and sizes. Keep them in a box that the children can access. Use P.V.A. glue for sticking and joining. Recycled materials – have a box or large bin that is always full of bits and bobs to model with – cardboard boxes, tubes, yogurt pots, bottle tops etc. Also make available a variety of ways to fix and join these things – double sided sticky spots, split pins, tags, masking tape, glue, hole punches. This will give children the opportunity to explore and experiment with different ways of fixing and joining. Recycled Mobiles – try hanging found objects from wire coat hangers: bottle tops, cardboard tubes, plastic spoons, yogurt pots, corks. Provide different coloured wool to attach the objects. The children will need to think about balance as they begin to hang things – does their mobile tip or is it level? Group sculptures – the children might like to have an on-going model that they can all add to as time goes by. It might be made out of recycled materials, wooden scraps or wire. There will be some problem solving to be done as the children have to think about strong bases, balance and working together. Pipe cleaners – provide coloured pipe cleaners and plastic sewing grids cut to different sizes for the children to sculpt with. Weave the pipe cleaners in and out, join the grids together, stack them up and see what happens!(www.theimaginationtree.com). Installations Understands that different media can be combined to create new effects, (Development Matters in the EYFS, Expressive Arts and Design, 40-60+ months, p.44) These can be great fun if a bit mad and messy. The children might like to try weaving wool or string round tables and chairs, sticking wool or string in patterns on the floor using masking tape, or going outside and weaving rags and scraps of fabric into the fence, or collecting lots of one type of thing (corks, tubes, bottle tops) and creating a large pattern with them. Be clear with the children that these installations cannot stay there forever. Ask them to help you take photographs of them before they are dismantled. Outside Provide children with opportunities to use their skills and explore concepts and ideas through their representations, (Development Matters in the EYFS, Expressive Arts and Design, 40-60+ months, p.44) Sand and mud – wet sand is great fun to mould and manipulate. Wet mud can be piled and smoothed into mounds and shapes too. Add sticks, pebbles, leaves, shells etc. and you have an outdoor sculpture. Snow – don’t forget that a snowman is a snow-sculpture! If you get enough snow have fun outside trying to make snowmen and women, snow children or even snow dogs. Andy Goldsworthy – (1956-present day) – Goldsworthy is an artist and sculptor who works with natural objects. Look at some of his work with the children – ‘Sycamore Sticks Line’ or ‘Rowan Leaves’. The children might like to have a go at making pictures and shapes with the things they find outside. Collect leaves, stones, sticks, pine cones – look for interesting shapes and colours. Take photographs of the children at work and their finished pieces (Painter and Thirlwall). Blowing in the wind – collect ribbons and scraps of fabric and different lengths of sticks with the children. Invite them to tie things to the sticks and watch as they blow in the wind, or are still when the wind dies down. They might like to push their sticks into the ground in groups to make an outdoor. Resources Remember to always have the camera on hand to record both the process and any finished product. The list of possible resources for sculpting with young children is endless. Here are just a few reminders; clay (red or grey), play dough, salt dough, plasticine, clay tools, forks, spoons, rollers, cutters, recycled materials (bottle tops, pots, cardboard boxes and tubes, corks, straws, silver foil, wood scraps, wire, beads, wool, string, scraps of fabric, pipe cleaners), glue, double sided sticky spots, tags, hole punches, split pins, masking tape, paper clips, natural objects (shells, pine cones, acorns, leaves, pebbles, sticks), construction toys.
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