My Monster Sculpture Lesson

For this lesson I created a mystery box with an object inside of it. The students were to touch the object without looking at it and feel the shape, size, and texture. The students then incorporated that object as a part of a monster. I let the students decide how they are going to transfer the shape, size, and texture into the monster that they were making.



My group successfully used the object in their monster sculptures. They got to use a variety of media like play doh, feathers, sea shells, wires, and popsicle sticks. If I were to change one of the medium, I wouldn't use play doh because it is not strong enough to hold the structure, but we did talk about how we could make it stronger. We also discussed additional functional problems, including creating a frame and then adding material to it, or making it balanced and not top heavy so it wouldn't fall over. These would be problems that I would want the students to explore and solve to understand the media that they have in front of them as well as the entire design process.



The age group I chose to create this project for is 8-10. I think this lesson is appropriate for that age group because they have opportunites for creativity and exploration, and are given choice in both materials and form. There's appropriate teacher guidance while at the same time the students have some say in what they create. The level of problem solving is also age-appropriate because it is not so overwhelming they will begin to feel frustration.



If I were to extend this into other subject areas, I would tie this lesson into social studies, where students in this age group learn about aboriginal mythology. I could also tie this in to social topics, like identity of the self and cultural identity.