Building Sculptures

These sculptures were made in our Toddler Class  but this is a great project for ages 2-6.  

I usually get my wood scraps from a furniture maker. She has so much extra wood and is happy to donate it to the studio for the kids to explore. I did invest in a chop saw and cut all the wood into even smaller pieces for the kids, but you can also get scraps from lumber stores.
I also offered the children puzzle pieces, buttons, beads and colored rice (which I dye myself. If you would like the recipe please email me at info@purpletwig.com and I will send it to you)

I gave each child 4 or 5 pieces of wood and some glue. I used the regular school glue instead of the washable kind for this project so everything really stuck. The children stacked the wood how they liked, sometimes a child might put a large piece on top of a thin piece and witnessed it become unstable and fall. We talked about how to create a strong structure by putting the thicker pieces on the bottom and smaller on the top. 

Then came the puzzle pieces to add. Then the buttons were next sometimes organizing them by color or shape and sometimes the larger buttons would drip down the sculpture along with the glue.

Then I gave them beads and lastly I offered them the colored rice to sprinkle.

The result are these individual colorful sculptures full of texture.  This would be a wonderful project for a birthday celebration or for a nice afternoon one on one with your child.