Calder Inspired Sculpture

Calder - Inspired Sculpture

       We are very lucky that our nursery school is located on the beautiful campus of Swarthmore College.  We take advantage of the campus with regular walks.  We are also very lucky that as part of our Art Unit, we were able to see a stabile Mobile by Alexander Calder that is located on the campus.  After talking about Alexander Calder and his interest in kinetic art (art that depends on motion) we visited this sculpture and notice how it move slightly in the wind.  

       We then went back to school and created our own Calder-inspired stabile Mobiles.  I cut a piece of florist foam to fit in the bottom of the new plastic baby food containers.  We then added grass seeds that are already mixed up in some type of dirt (you can just put seeds right on the florist foam). We then gave each child 3-4 pipe cleaners and small folded pieces of construction paper.  The children cut out shapes and bent the pipe cleaners.  We then glued (or sometimes stapled) the folded shape around the top of the pipe cleaner and poked the other end into the foam.  A couple of days later, we have our own sculptures!  This project was inspired by Teach Kids Art.