Sculpture Homeschool Fall 2019

September 9 - October 21, 2019

Seven week full-day (10am-3pm) building program for homeschoolers ages 8-11. Every week offers an opportunity to work on a new project and learn skills with power tools and building materials. The program includes large-scale sculpture building, tool safety demos, design challenges, outdoor play, and freedom to follow your own ideas.

Session 1

September 9, 2019

We started the program by building a 12 ft elephant. The group of 12 homeschoolers were prompted to work together to frame the legs, body, head, and moveable truck.

The first step was to frame the legs of the structure. The group divided into three teams to assemble the towers out of 2x3’s. This task helped the group “break the ice” and provided valuable time to practice drilling.

Once the groups finished building their towers they moved onto painting the 1/4” plywood “elephant skin.”

Step 1 ✅ got 4 elephant legs assembled before lunch.

In the afternoon the group split up to tackle the next steps framing the body and painting more “elephant skin.”

With an all-hands-on-deck team effort we were able to life the first wall and install it onto the legs.

Day 1 complete. Both walls up with the group standing proudly on their progress.

Session 2

September 16, 2019

Session 3: Choose Your Own

September 23, 2019

Our third session brought about our “choose your own” project unit. The group was prompted by sharing a concept drawing of a limbo bar. The sketch included a title, materials, and descriptions of different aspects of the object.

After looking over the drawing and asking questions, the group went outside to “study” the finished limbo bar project.

After some fun, the group took 15 minutes to work with their partners (or individually) and create drawings of their own ideas.

Once they finished, we gathered in the elephant to share ideas. Daisie and Azza decided to work together to make plywood cut-outs of candy canes, marshmallows and steamy hot chocolate-filled mugs.

At the end of sharing time everyone broke off and got started. Daisy and Azza found a scrap piece of plywood to match their vision for the candy cane. They drew out the shape and took turns cutting it out of 1/2” plywood with the jigsaw.