Wooden Robots

This was one of the projects I worked on with one of my afterschool classes. Sometimes I like to use products that the only thing they have to do is personalize it, like these wooden puppets. I prefer having students do everything themselves, such as molding the shapes and sticking pieces together, but we have limited time for these projects and students enjoy when things in the classroom are changed up a bit. 

To help students visualize what their robot puppet should look like we looked at different pictures of robots and talked about the common elements the pictures had. We discussed what we should add to our robot and I drew different variations of the elements so students could pick and choose what they wanted. 

 

Once students were done drawing they started painting. They painted section by section and I told them what that section was and how many colors they should use. Without this guidance, students would paint everything in one color and all of the details of the robot would be lost. Organizing the painting of the robot in steps and areas helped students keep a clear idea of what the end product should look like and take better care of their work as they painted. 

In the end, the robots looked amazing! These were done by my 3rd and 2nd year students (5 and 6 years old) I am happy they understood how to take care of their brushstrokes to keep colors separated.