More Calder

The third graders love the whimsical attitude of the Art of Alexander Calder. We start the unit looking at Calder's constellation sculptures in conjunction with their in-class space study. The students used a card-stock circle base and paper lines to bend, curl, fold and fringe creating out of this world results.



The children also admired Calder's simple cartoon drawing style and his limited color palette so they took off with black marker creating abstract circus drawings with primary colors. Later they created wire figures inspired by Calder's circus. (see Posting-Calder Wire Sculptures).

Calder Wire Sculptures

As part of the 3rd grade Calder unit, they made wire circus figures. After twisting the wire into a body shape, the kids added more wire, pipe cleaners, yarn, beads and more to create unique 3-d wire sculptures. They decorated wooden bases and then the figures were stapled onto the base.