SCULPTING WITH PAPER (AND CARDBOARD)

The materials we need to create paper and cardboard sculptures are everywhere (and essentially free), and they offer people of all ages opportunities to create almost anything. 

With children, this is an exciting realm to explore as soon as they begin to be able to rip, fold, crumple, curl, twist, and bend paper, and stack and balance cardboard. In doing these things, children are developing an array of fine motor skills through play, while discovering new methods of expression.

The possibilities in a piece of paper are not usually as apparent as those in a cup of paint, so we can help by:

• having paper and cardboard, in various states, among our self-serve materials, along with whatever sticking mediums we’re comfortable with in our classrooms
• putting our words for paper manipulation into regular rotation
• sharing with adult family members about the skills their children are practicing, and advising them about recycled paper materials they might add to their self-serve bins for non-messy play at home.

In your art discussions, children’s experience shaping paper and other moldable materials may allow them to see the connection between their own works and those of artists working with metal, wood, stone, or on a large scale.