Styro-saurs

Years ago I was looking at donated materials given for my summer art camp. Among the items was a large supply of styrofoam of all shapes and sizes. In art we've always been fans of recycling in all it's forms and this camp was no exception. I though how bone-like the pieces looked and it inspired me to create a camp called styro-saurs.

The class started with checking in with the kids who'd signed up and seeing what ways they were already experts. I had them bring their books, pictures and dinosaur toys and together with books on dinosaurs we emersed ourselves in reptilian thought. The kids chose a dinosaur they wanted to make and began looking through the piles of styro-bones, looking for the right ones for their dinos.

Wanna talk engineering challenges? The beginning of the building of these creatures was full of challenges for kids. What looked good in imagination sometimes offered real challenges in reality. We used duct tape for the "pin up" process, along with shish-kabob skewers to hold joints together. We cut the stryofoam with hacksaw blades covered half way up with duct tape and kids thought about what colors the styro-saurs should be.

Kids attacked their creations from many angles and collaboration was everywhere. Older kids helped younger and experts emerged from the ranks to help others.

I did the painting as we were using spray paint. The acetone in spray paint melts styrofoam so painting is a bit of a tricky business. These days I wouldn't use an enamel paint but hindsight is 20/20

All kinds of creatures emerged from our art-lab and kids had wonderfully creative ideas.

Dinosaurs weren't the only thing we created as kids focused on other elements of the ancient biosphere.

With so many big creations, we knew that we'd have to create a gallery installation to showcase kids' work!

Safely behind a styro-fence, the styro-saurs could be viewed by the public. I felt that kids learned a lot but I brought the idea back to my regular classroom and repeated the same success. Kids usually love dinosaurs but there is so much curriculum you can stick in while they are engaged!