The second grades have been experimenting with paper engineering lately. That means we have been paying attention to what the material, paper, can and cannot do....and why. Kids are starting to notice that paper which is floppy can be made stiff by simply adding a crease. This is very handy if the zebra you just made looks like its legs are melting! And an amazing property of folded paper is that a simple slit on the fold can "bite" and hold firmly to another paper...if you know the tricks. (The folded paper must be opened to see the "v" a little, and the slit can't be weak and wiggly because it was snipped too close to an edge.) No tape, no glue, no staples...just know-how.
What I am shooting for is an art student who looks at their failures with an eye to figuring out what went wrong. I'd much rather a child who makes a ton of mistakes and works them through than a child who is good at copying me but hasn't a clue what they did right! Because the art class is a short and busy time for me you can really help reinforce the art lessons by assisting your child in making another paper sculpture or talking to them about the engineering considerations in their project. While we use these skills in first grade, too, the cause and effect really begins to gel in second grade.
The following are tips and ideas for family discussion or projects:
- thicker paper, like grocery bag paper, is better for paper engineering
- junk mail often has thin but stiff paper which works great
- check your child's project; for example,if the legs are floppy ask them what might you do to stiffen them up and so forth.
- get your child to say what is wrong....exactly, if possible.
"It's no good." is not a statement that leads to a solution. But, "the legs are floppy" can lead to trying things to cure the problem.
- The first step must be to identify the problem...only then can you begin to think of ways to try and solve it!
"Wobbly legs" seem a much smaller disaster than "the whole thing is awful".!
Cause and Effect,