I like to explore sculpture with my students and whenever possible, to include some recycling. I had a large reserve of cardboard and had been wanting my students to explore scale. It’s something they need to understand for their math classes and we touched on it with grid portraits and origami.
 
I used the book, "3-D Geometric Forms For Art" to print enough polyhedric forms that each student could have a different one. Their samples were on standard copy paper but I wanted their final forms to be about the size of a basketball. We learned that basketballs have a circumference of nearly 30 inches. (29.5 in.) I asked my students how would they convert their form to a larger size,? My goal was for them to figure out how many times larger they would need to make their form templates. I told them to not deal with fractions, but to be in the neighborhood of 30 to 36 inches. In most cases it meant that they had to multiply their measurements by 4 or 5 times.
 
Many figures use equilateral or isosceles triangles. A few used pentagons, hexagons and other shapes. For this I had to give students a tutorial on how to use a protractor and measure angles. Once a paper template was made, shapes could be cut from cardboard. I find Canary Cutters are great for safely cutting cardboard for children of all ages.
 
Though tape can be used to quickly put forms together, I had my students “make tape” from Elmer’s Glue and thicker paper. Knowing some might paint their form, I know plastic tapes can sometimes resist painted media. As students were completing their forms we had a discussion about what they would ultimately turn them into creating art objects.  We did a little brainstorming and research and these were the ideas students wanted to explore:
 

• Piñatas
• Planters
• Piggy Banks
• 3D Album
• Lamp
• Clock

​Piñatas, by far, were a big hit, likely because we have a large Hispanic population in my school and we did this right after Halloween. Candy was still fresh in their minds. The next popular choice was decorating the form with colors and lyrics of a favorite music artist’s album. Several made piggy banks by covering their form with plaster and tissue mâché. One student turned theirs into a lamp, while another created a Cuckoo Clock. We had a lot of fun, and I think reinforcing the use of rulers and protractors was greatly appreciated by our math department.

Our school does an annual food and toy drive for the holiday seasons. I find that food is always a motivating subject for students. So we paired these two ideas together to create an art display that also helped remind students to make donations and to understand that hunger is a real issue even in our community.

We began this unit with a little research. Students find hunger facts; World Hunger, US Hunger, or Local Hunger facts. Each student had to find a unique fact that would be used later on the edge of their tray. (You can find my previous version of this lesson here)


Next, we explore continuous line drawings of the foods we like best. I encourage the meals to be balanced with all food groups but require enough for it to feel like a complete meal that includes a beverage and utensils appropriate to the food. 

We began by exploring wire with pliers. I got some 20 gauge annealed wire from Nasco in 5 lb. spools, but any soft wire will do. I had examples for students to make on their own. Their name in cursive that could fit on a Post-it note. A cube, sphere, spring, and a block letter if they were able. Once these were done they created some continuous line drawings of food. These become the basis for our wire sculptures. 


I had students save some lunch trays from our cafeteria so they could be recycled into our projects. Students filled their tray with their wire food items, and those who finished early were asked to make bonus table-top items like a butter dish, salt and pepper shakers, or flowers for a vace I had. This kept early finishers busy. 

To my eye, the wire food is like a "ghost" of the food that should be there. It allows you to read the facts but also enhances the visual message. We displayed these in a common area of our building along with signage to remind students to bring in food items and gently used toys for our area soup kitchen. It was a big hit, and donations were plentiful.

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We did begin to get replies from a few artists a couple months after this project was complete. Students were so proud to receive hand-written notes, gifts, and autographs.

​We made sure to share their replies with the advanced English class that edited their original letters.