4th Grade Calder Inspired Circus Sculptures- 2nd batch!

This year my elementary school chose a circus theme and I started the school year off with circus themed projects to ease into things. I have most of my elementary classes for a whole semester but 4th graders switched for 2nd quarter. I decided since the first group enjoyed the process so much, I would repeat it with the 2nd group, and I'm SO glad I did. The kids blew it out of the water! They were so engaged and wanted to keep collaborating and adding cool features that it ended up taking the bulk of their art classes. Having class on Friday left them short 2 classes due to Thanksgiving break and Christmas break starting this Friday, but I'd rather have them do a really good job on a couple projects than be rushed through more.

We started pretty much the same way- talking about Alexander Calder's work and watching part of one of his circus performances- I didn't have time to read the book "Sandy's Circus" to the students this time but it is a great book that they enjoyed! I borrowed it from my local library but you can find a read aloud video online or order from Amazon.

If you order from my link I may recieve a small commission at no extra cost to you.

After the video, I showed students the tubs of objects available for them to use. We had pipe cleaners for wire, fabric scraps, yarn, beads, buttons, gems, cardboard, and all the scraps found in the collage center and recycling bin.

This was a collaboration between 2 girls- there is a horse rider in the front and trapeze artist hanging in the back.

One of the students made Dumbo complete a feather!

Bird Man

 

This is the group that discovered the recycling bin

When one group discovered the recycling bin, they maybe went a little overboard. In the next class we talked about transforming objects so that people could understand the new purpose. This group created a tank with someone holding their breath, turned a plastic cup into a stand for the spotlight and operator, made a packing material into a nest for Bird Man, and used a pop can as his perch.

Details of the circus performers

This group became very adept at creating little performers. They would get everything formed and just ask me to hit it with hot glue. I felt more comfortable being the hot glue gun operator. I stationed myself where I could supervise everyone and they just brought pieces to me to glue.

If you have a lot of random "craft" items or found objects taking up cabinet space, this project would be a great way to use some up in a creative way. If you ever want to do wire sculptures with your younger students but don't have the materials to do it safely, pipe cleaners can be an easy substitute!

4th grade Calder Inspired Circus Sculptures

Each year my elementary school starts the year with a theme and this year the theme is circus! I like to use that theme as a starting point for each grade's first art classes of the year. This year my 4th graders looked at Alexander Calder's circus and then had choice of a whole bunch of materials to use for their own circus sculptures.

To begin the lesson, I read the book "Sandy's Circus" to the students. I borrowed it from my local library, but here's the Amazon link if you'd like to buy it. 

(If you purchase with my link I may get a small commission at no extra cost to you.)

After reading the book, I showed the students part of the following video where Alexander Calder performs his circus!

I pulled out a tub of pipe cleaners to serve as our wires. In my cabinet I also found buttons, feathers, sequins, beads, other "crafty" materials that were donated, and found objects. I put the tubs out on the table and the students were able to take what they needed buffet style. 

I cut pieces of cardboard down for bases and showed how to attach things by poking holes, making slots, using buttons, etc. Of course students invented their own methods and some things required glue.

Feathers make for very fluffy lions.

While some of the sculptures are more abstract than others, I saw a lot of problem solving and experimentation, which I think is more important than perfectly polished artworks.

Here is the display. There is even someone on a flying trapeze hanging from a support!

Everyday Object Sculptures

One of the great ideas I picked up at the 2018 KAEA conference was a challenge to make a sculpture of an everyday object out of cardboard of found materials that had a major change in scale- either making a small object really big or a big object really small (Thanks, Kaleena!) . My middle school class at the time was 8th grade and I thought it would be a great fit. The students weren’t ready for full choice and there tended to be fewer behavior issues when working 3D.

I introduced the assignment and the students were pretty pumped. I had ordered some cardboard tape and that helped us use less hot glue plus made a smoother surface that was very easy I paint. I recommend investing in a roll- it will go a long way!

The students showed enough responsibility during this assignment that we were able to end the semester with a themed assignment. I would totally give this challenge to high school students if I had more 3D atorage. It was enough to try and store 13 sculptures. I just don’t know where we would put 45 u less they all made them small instead of big.

Middle School Ceramic Gargoyles

My 8th graders weren't yet ready for too many choices  when it was time to do clay. I wanted to choose a topic that would get them interested and cover a bunch of different sculpting techniques. I remembered that my high school students had made gargoyles at League Art in the past and that other students were always intrigued with the results so I chose that topic.
We looked at a bunch of images and discussed the history of gargoyles and grotesques both practical and symbolic before brainstorming a list of features we saw in the images. The students used the list to help them come up with ideas as they sketched out a gargoyle they wanted to make.
The next day I demonstrated combining pinch pots to make hollow forms, attachment techniques, and several sculpting methods. The students set off to work on their sculptures.
When they were ready for glazing, I showed how you can dab on black glaze then wipe it off with a sponge to create a stone effect. All the students chose to glaze their gargoyles with this technique and they turned out great! A few didn't wipe off quite enough so they just have some black shiny spots instead of a matte finish. The 8th graders impressed the high school students who kept asking about the projects and who had made them. The students have steadily shown more work ethic and responsibility since we moved to 3D projects so they have shown me they are ready for a theme which is how we'll finish off the semester.

littleBits in the Art Room!

Over the summer I got to attend the NAEA Western Region Leadership Conference. It was awesome to meet and work with leaders in other states' art education associations and they even planned cool workshops for us including kinetic sculptures with littleBits! I knew I wanted to figure out how to get those kits into the hands of my students.
Thankfully our school librarian was able to purchase a few kits with some grant money and we were able to use them in my 8th grade art class the last week of the semester.
I showed the students some videos of the kinetic sculptures made in the Western Region workshops and the rest was pretty much learning by doing. Students don't get enough opportunities to learn through play and exploration so I showed them the kits and suggested they start by just putting the pieces together to find out what they do and how they work. There were books with each kits in case students wanted to read first but most were happy to just explore. I asked the students to brainstorm how the parts could be used to make sculptures do different things and that was how they came up with their ideas.
The students had simple materials available- cardboard and other recyclables, tape, wire, and hot glue. I just asked that they were careful to attach the circuit parts with tape so that they would not be damaged. The project was lots of fun and even the students who are not normally that "in" to art were engaged.
Since the projects had to be temporary, we made a record with video which I posted on our YouTube channel.





Since we only had a few kits, not all the students were able to participate at the same time due to groups getting too big, so some chose to try out stop motion animation instead. I just posted a Donors Choose project to try to get two more kits so that the amount available would work better with our class sizes. I also want to ask our awesome librarian to host the new kits, when hopefully the project is funded, so that they can be shared with other classrooms. If you'd like to contribute to our project, here's the link!

Dynamic Cardboard Relief Sculptures

 
Last October I presented a two day workshop at the Kansas Art Education Association convention titled "Dynamic Cardboard Relief Sculptures".
I went through some tips about working with cardboard and options for working with different grade levels. Then, since we were all art teachers, I pretty much did a quick demo and let everyone work! I worked on my own example and circulated, but they didn't really need any help. It was really fun to have the time to work and complete a project and see what the other art teachers came up with. Take a look!

This tiger was AWESOME!

Some people made one big project over the two days and others made multiple smaller projects.

 This compass project looked great with the two different colors of cardboard.

 I made a portrait of Chip Taylor, the founder of Monarch Watch, since I was thinking about Unsung Heroes at the time. I later spray painted it gold.

 Some participants used spray paint (the two above sprayed from different directions) and some used acrylic. Others left the cardboard as is.

6th grade Cardboard Construction

Fitting 3D work is so hard for me. When I interviewed they told me that the program was set up for mostly 2D work. We always do a clay project (with choices) and while this year there were a few more options for 3D projects during our Cultural Heritage studies (jewelry and shields), I really intended to open up a sculpture center earlier. With everything else we have to fit in and only seeing my 4th-6th grade students for 40 minutes every other week, it just kept getting pushed back until it finally seemed to fit in the schedule at the end of April. 6th was the only grade to get to do cardboard construction as the only place to store projects was on top of some tall cabinets and there was only enough room for one grade. Maybe this year I'll figure out how to rotate and start earlier so that each intermediate grade gets a turn...

When I introduced cardboard sculpture, we talked about "relief" and "in the round". I don't have enough box knives to go around, and honestly don't trust all my students to use them responsibly, so my solution was to break down larger sheets of gathered up cardboard into manageable pieces that could be cut with scissors into the shapes the students desired if they wanted something other than rectangles. I showed how slits/notches are one of the easiest ways to attach cardboard and loved that several students came up with other attachments like poking cardboard through holes. A few notches were a little loose and required a dot of hot glue to secure the pieces, but most in the round projects did not necessitate glue. Relief sculptures could be secured with school glue since they were laid flat to dry.

This student used small cardboard pieces to attach and "float" his Pac-Man pieces.

Two relief sculptures. Do you remember learning to make "S"s like that? I remember spending a lot of time doodling "SMILE" with that style of letter. The paw print relief sculpture was with school spirit for our mascot, the panther.

Some students chose to paint their projects while others liked the raw look of the plain cardboard.

A lot of these projects seem like models of monumental sculptures. My 3D professor in college said to imagine you were a tiny person walking in and around and over the piece to see if it would be interesting.

I also showed how cardboard is made of two flat layers with corrugation in the middle. Several students experimented with revealing the corrugated texture in their sculptures.

 Here are some great TAB construction/sculpture ideas that I may try to implement in the coming school year
A size tester box to make sure projects are of a suitable size for storage (and not hogging materials)
Limiting most 3D projects to one day, which would eliminate the storage issue...
Attachment challenge/test students must pass before working in 3D center (wish I had time for this!)