Students will be able to:
- create a free-standing sculpture;
- create personal responses to the centre materials;
- work independently and self-regulate;
- share their ideas with peers;
- demonstrate a sense of accomplishment.
PACKAGING MATERIAL BUDDY – Sculpture, Space, Balance
Steps
Step One
- Choose a Styrofoam shape for the main part of your buddy sculpture.
- Draw on it using markers and crayons.
- Think of all the things you can use to make your buddy interesting.
Step Two
- Wrap a pipe cleaner around a pencil or the handle of a paint brush.
- Pull it off gently so it stays curled.
- Stick the twisted pipe cleaner into the Styrofoam.
Step Three
- Paint coloured glue on parts of the shape.
Step Four
- Stick a toothpick into the Styrofoam.
- Add some beads.
- Place a drop of glue on top of the last bead to hold it in place.
Step Five
- Gently insert a toothpick into the end of a foam stick.
- Leave about half the toothpick sticking out.
- Insert the toothpick into the Styrofoam.
Step Six
- Join other objects to the Styrofoam using toothpicks and glue.
- Keep adding details to make every part of your buddy sculpture interesting.
- Give your buddy sculpture a name.
- Look at your buddy sculpture from all sides.
- What kinds of shapes do you see?
- What kind of energy do you feel from the details in your sculpture?
- What do you see that makes you say that?
- What do you like the best about this sculpture? Why?
- Who would love this sculpture? Why? - Find shape words in the classroom.
Learning Goals
Extensions
- Set up a centre in your room where students can examine a variety of products and their packaging materials, such as cardboard boxes, Styrofoam, bubble wrap, plastic forms.
- Have students:
- sort and classify the packaging materials;
- weigh and measure the packaging materials;
- explain what the packaging materials do;
- design ways to package objects using the least amount of packaging material;
- explain why it is beneficial to reduce packaging materials;
- share their ideas with their peers.
Prepare
- Create a sculpture centre in your classroom with the following things:
- various Styrofoam packaging materials
- washable white and coloured glue
- paint brushes
- scissors
- markers and crayons
- pencils
- toothpicks
- pipe cleaners
- foam sticks
- corks
- buttons
- wooden stir sticks
- beads
- glitter glue - Gather, and make available, books about recycling, for example, Why Should I Recycle?, by Jen Green, and Mike Gordon; The Adventures of a Plastic Bottle: A Story About Recycling, by Alison Inches, and Pete Whitehead; Don't Throw That Away!: A Lift-the-Flap Book about Recycling and Reusing, by Lara Bergen, and Betsy Snyder; The Adventures Of An Aluminum Can, by Alison Inches; The Three R's: Reuse, Reduce, Recycle, by Nuria Roca, Rosa M. Curto; and Where Does the Garbage Go?, by Paul Showers, and Randy Chewning.
- Download and display the Shape, Form and Balance posters available on this website.
Introduction
- Conduct a read-aloud with a book such as Don't Throw That Away!: A Lift-the-Flap Book about Recycling and Reusing, by Lara Bergen, and Betsy Snyder.
- View and discuss a variety of pieces of Styrofoam packaging material pointing out the difference between 2-and 3- dimensional shapes, and guessing what kind of product was packed in the Styrofoam.
- Display shape words in the classroom.
- Introduce the sculpture centre and explain what a sculpture is – a 3-dimensional artwork that can be viewed from all sides.
- Introduce the challenge.
Activities
The Challenge
- Make a buddy sculpture using Styrofoam packaging material.
- Use your own ideas to make your buddy sculpture.
- Use different materials to make all sides of your buddy sculpture interesting.
- Explain how you made your buddy sculpture.
The Process
- Ensure that students understand the challenge.
- Establish success criteria with your students, for example,
I know I am successful when I:
- use my own ideas to make my buddy sculpture
- add a variety of objects to my buddy sculpture
- make all sides of my buddy sculpture interesting
- explain how I made my buddy sculpture
- share my ideas with my classmates - Guide students through the steps outlined in the lesson plan.
- Demonstrate how to use a toothpick to join objects.
- Demonstrate how to make a twisted pipe cleaner.
- Observe students as they work.
- Provide individual assistance and encouragement.
Sharing
- Gather students to share and discuss their sculptures. Ask students:
- What kinds of shapes do you see?
- What kind of energy do you feel from the details in your sculpture?
- What do you see that makes you say that?
- What do you like the best about this sculpture? Why?
- Who would love this sculpture? Why? - Display all the sculptures in the classroom.
- Encourage students to view the sculptures and notice how they are the same, and how they are different.
Assessment
- Observe students as they work – thoughtful focus, discriminating, seeking more information, elaborating, experimenting.
- Observe students as they discuss the artworks – active listening, insightful contributions, supporting ideas with evidence found in the artwork and from personal experience.
- Use a checklist to track progress. (Download - Buddy_tracking.pdf)
- Have grade 1- 3 students use the self-assessment form to evaluate their work. (Download - Buddy_self-assessment.pdf)
