Year 3 – Sculpture

Year 3- Art- Sculpture- Alexander Calder

Year 3 worked their magic with paper and some old cardboard boxes . The children used their learning about American sculptor Alexander Calder to created their own sculptures. They focused on Calder’s stabile sculptures. They found out that a stabile is a stationary sculpture that has taken on an abstract form. Alexander Calder created his structures out of steel. 

After exploring the work of Calder, the children made their own versions using paper. They explored how the paper could be manipulated by folding, twisting and bending.

The children then went on to think about shape, height and colour. They used cardboard to construct sculptures without using anything to hold the pieces together. The children need to think about how they could cut and slot the shapes in to place.

What The Student Says

'When we started I was a little bit worried that my sculpture wouldn't stay together without glue. It did fall apart in the classroom but I was able to put it back together. I really enjoyed seeing my sculptures come together. I liked starting and not knowing how it would end up at the end.' Year 3 pupil.

What skills were developed?

  • How to use paper to create a sculpture with different heights and shapes.
  • How to use folding, bending and twisting  to get the required shapes and final composition.
  • How to use a combination of different 2d shapes and heights.
  • How to construct a sculture using no glue.
  • How to choose colour based on work by Calder.

What the Teacher says

Each week it was lovely to see the sculptures progress. The children were amazed that they could build sculptures without glue. They showed great resilience especially when they noticed that their sculptures could break easily.

I was so impressed to see that all the sculptures looked so different considering how basic the materials were. This shows the grit and creativity that they children possess.

Miss Jones, Year 3 teacher.

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