Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Sculptures on Monday madness

I can say hands down that this was the most well received activity of all the art that we have done on Monday Madness.

Reason: Even the boys loved it.

Ok.. So the materials were pretty simple and cost next to nothing. We had bought a new microwave (the old one stopped working and gave off the smell of burnt plastic when we turned it on, so it had to go in the bin) and the box had a lot of styrofoam material. I got the styrofoam cut, arbitrarily. Then on the way back from work, I bought a pack of wooden skewers and a box of toothpicks.

Hidden lessons: The physics of structures and how to make them stable. Some engineering on joints, The role of collaboration and working together while making and while cleaning up, Developing confidence through presenting their work. 

The idea was for the kids to make sculptures using the styrofoam to make joints. There are many versions of this floating around, the most popular one being to use marshmallows and toothpicks, though I have seen at the artful parent one using grapes. (We should try it at home)

So the kids got started. They were a bit unsure at first because of the novelty of the materials, though one or two of the older ones had done the marshmallow thing.
But they soon got the hang of it
And started making guns
And marshmallows on fire
And even a collaborative effort that led to a giant tadpole

Here is a caterpillar on legs
Another interesting alien like thing
Anyone wants to smell a flower?
Or put it on a stand?
Like last week, the cleanup this time was also very fun. This time, the kids made their own brooms out of dried palm leaves
And the floor looked like this when we left
Team Cleaners!
Since all the children were so proud of their creations, we took little videos where they described their work. I have put up a couple of them so that you can see how enthusiastic the kids were making their sculptures

Up next on Monday madness, nothing concrete yet, but I am thinking of doing something Diwali related - Either cornstarch/ flower or leaf Rangoli- which might get somewhat messy, or making lamps from air dry clay. I remember seeing a homemade recipe for air dry clay which I have not tested yet. Next Monday, 8.30pm then.

3 comments:

  1. That is such a great activity! I can tell that the children loved it. You do such a great job with them. Thanks for sharing at Mom's Library!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for connecting. I enjoy it also

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    2. hello aunty this is sneha i remebre this!!!! and i did not
      know this was called monday madness

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