Straw Sculptures Activities | Artshine

Grade 1:

•  Geometry and Spatial Sense

  • Overall Expectation:

    •  identify common two-dimensional shapes and three-dimensional figures and sort and classify them by their attributes;*

  • Specific Expectation:

    •  identify and describe common two- dimensional shapes (e.g.,circles,triangles, rectangles, squares) and sort and classify them by their attributes (e.g., colour; size; texture; number of sides), using concrete materials and pictorial representations (e.g.,“I put all the triangles in one group. Some are long and skinny, and some are short and fat, but they all have three sides.”);

  • Activity Idea:

    • Bev taught you to make sculptures using straws and pipecleaners. Can you identify any shapes in the sculpture you made?

    • Using any leftover materials from your sculpture, can you make a shape with three sides? What about a shape with four sides?

    • Make as many different shapes as possible using your materials. Once you have made them, trace them on a piece of paper and write the name of the shape and how many sides it has next to it.

    • Challenge: Using some or all of your materials, try and make a 2 dimensional circle! Remember, circles do not have flat sides!

Grade 3:

• Geometry and Spatial Sense

  • Overall Expectations:

    • compare two-dimensional shapes and three-dimensional figures and sort them by their geometric properties;

  • Specific Expectations:

    • describe and name prisms and pyramids by the shape of their base (e.g., rectangular prism, square-based pyramid);

  • Activity Idea:

    • In the sculpture that you created identify 3 different 2-dimensional shapes. Once you have identified the shapes, draw them on a piece of paper and describe them. (ie. How many sides do they have? How many vertices? How many right angles?)

    • After you have finished describing the shapes, use the 2-dimensional shape as your base and create a prism from it. Draw the prism and describe it. (ie: How many faces does it have? How many vertices? How many edges?)

    • Finally, using the leftover materials from your sculpture, see if you can build any of the prisms you created on paper. 

Grade 4:

•  Writing

  • Overall Expectations:

    • generate, gather, and organize ideas and information to write for an intended purpose and audience;

  • Specific Expectations:

    • generate ideas about a potential topic using a variety of strategies and resources (e.g., brainstorm; formulate and ask questions to identify personal experiences, prior knowledge, and information needs)

  • Activity Idea:

    • Pretend the straw sculpture you made came to life and was able to travel back in time. Choose a time in history (medieval, Ancient Egypt, Early Settlers?) and write a story about your sculpture's adventure.