Newspaper Sculpture

We are exploring art mediums to express ourselves. We explored paintings and sculptures thought books, internet and by observing some of artwork I brought from home (two paintings and a sculpture). I asked the children about the uses of newspaper and if they could be used to create art. They said no. Then and I showed the students how to make a newspaper roll. Then I asked the students if newspaper rolls could be used to make artwork. It did not take long until one child said that we could stick the newspaper rolls together.



Questions:

• Why do people make art?
• How are paintings and sculptures different?
• Do sculptures need to represent a person, animal, or thing?

Making the newspaper sculpture was a lot of fun. Rolling the pages diagonally is the best way to make tubes. I asked the children to try a few techniques and test their how strong they were. The ones rolled diagonally were voted the best. This rolling is not very easy for the young children and they might need some help.

We also tried to imagine how the sculpture would look like when finished. 

I let older children do it by themselves. By trial and error they ended up figuring out that they needed to hold the tube tight otherwise it will unroll. You will probably need to help the child tape the tube.

With the 3's and some of the 4's I had to keep my hands on the newspaper so it would not unroll but the child was the one doing the movement to roll it.

Once a few tubes were ready we could start the sculpture.

 Everyone participated. The younger ones needed help taping the tubes together.

Then one of the boys said we could add a second level. I asked , "How?" and he explained how we could do it. Then I asked him to show us how to do it.

 And he did it!

We worked on a table and on the carpet alternatively. I would move the sculpture from one place to another according to students' requests.

After they worked a lot the children declared it was ready, but on the following day I got a few requests to add more tubes. Why not?

Questions:

• What was it easy and difficult about this collaborative artwork?
• Was it easy to work with friends?
• Did you learn anything with this experience?

Fantastically fun!