Studio Sprout strives to be a good steward of the planet by reducing our footprint in a variety of ways including utilizing recycled materials in our projects. We kicked off the fall session which will focus on exploring 3-D art with Paper Roll Sculptures made from toilet paper and paper towel rolls. The backing for these sculptures was cut up cardboard boxes. You can see examples of stage one (unpainted) and stage two (painted with glitter) in the center of the table.
I encouraged the kids to use a lot of glue, even if that meant making large puddles or drizzling a bit past the edge of their background.
We talked about stacking roll pieces on top of others to make second and third layers and levels, utilizing the space above the flat background surface.
My older students (4 years and up) are particularly industrious so I gave them a background nearly twice the size of my young toddlers and challenged them to fill the entire space as well as build upwards.
A few classes moved quickly through the gluing so we experimented with paper roll printing.
The second activity of the day was flubber! This is the one project I make sure to include every few sessions since it’s always a hit. I stumbled upon this amazing recipe first on Play Based Classroom.
My top three tools and materials to use with flubber are: play dough scissors, mardi gras beads, and glass rocks from the dollar store.
Flubber stretches too!
Since the summer is winding down we decided to clean up the planting beads and pulled out some old crops including red torpedo onions. It felt good to make room for our winter crops and the 18M-2Y class loved pulling veggies from the earth!