Art Cart: Giacometti

Today was my turn to teach the kids in N's class (and the class across the hall) Art Cart. We have a total of 38 kids. The lady I share the Art Cart responsibility with has a lot more experience at Art Cart than me. She's taught me a lot. She's the one who pointed me to The Usborne "Art Treasury" book by Rosie Dickins. It's a terrific resource. I might have to put it on my Birthday list! Anyway...I taught the kids about sculpture and a famous sculpture named Alberto Giacometti. I was surprised that the kids knew what a sculpture is. We talked about the various materials used to make sculptures. Giacometti mainly used bronze. We have numerous bronze sculptures in the our area, so I showed the kids pictures of bronze sculptures around town that they may have seen or will have the chance to see locally. Then I showed them pictures of Giacometti and his works. Giacometti’s sculptures were mostly of people. He would carve and carve and carve them until they were almost twig-like. That’s why they are all so slender. The kids found it interesting that the sculptures were so slender and had such big feet. After we talked about Giacometti, I walked the kids through how to make their own sculpture using pipe cleaners, foil and clay. This project idea is found in Dickin's "Art Treasury" book as well. I prepared the foil ahead of time by cutting it into strips. I also prepared their pipe cleaner people in advance. All they needed to do was wrap the people in foil, add the clay feet and wrap the clay. They found it to a bit more tricky than I thought they would, but once they got the hang of it they enjoyed it. Several of the kids were able to make their sculptures stand up in various positions. One boy said his was doing the limbo. One girl said her’s was surfing. We had fun with that. When they were done making their people each student got a crossword I made that contained words related to sculpture and Giacometti. I was amazed at how well they could do a crossword! D and I talked about it and we don't recall doing crossword puzzles until we were much older! Art Cart is always a lot of preparation, but it’s worth it. The kids don’t have an official art class, so this is all they get in terms of art education. I enjoy it and so do they.