Junk Modelling

[Guest]

Hi Just a quick question...

How do you get your children to build anything purposeful in the creative area. My children seem to just stick boxes together and when you ask them what they have made they can't answer. Do you put any signs up or challenge posters....i.e. Today your challenge is to make a robot! Please help the children seem to go through hundreds of boxes each week and nothing showing any great skill is being made???!!! Also do u give the chn glue celletape Bly tac etc so the chn have to decide what is the best thing to stick the model together? Please help I want purposeful and progressive learning to take place thank u

[Guest]

We provide materials to wrap around and decorate and add to the boxes. It seems easier for children to make a range of things that they are pleased with and look like thingseg crocodile, phone, jewellery box. Adding collage bits allows shakers to be made. We gave children elastic bands wthis week and mow have a lot of guitars. We are in reception - if your children are younger Iwouldn't be surprised if they are experimenting.

[Guest]

Hi yes my children are reception... So how did u get them to make guitars?? Did u prep them or do you have posters up asking the children to create different things?? Do you have planning sheets?? Thanks

[Scarlettangel]

Don't you think the fact that they can join the "junk" together is amazing?

 

That they can cut through card........

 

I expect in their own minds, they have indeed created a masterpiece..............

 

I would be less bothered about them making something to suit you than being able to use glue, scissors, cellotape, elastic bands, masking tape, brown tape, split pins, etc

 

Its surely about the process not the end result?

[dublinbay]

I agree with all that Scarlettangel!

 

I asked a child to tell me about his model when junk modelling once and he changed his mind several times during the activity. What started out as a car became a bus, a house and ended up as a garden. Why do they have to do anything special? They are learning so many things during the all important process. All we have to do is provide the resources, support if asked, model the how to if necessary and just let them create.

 

Junk models are from the imagination and the heart.

 

If you want guitars then perhaps it should be a specific activity rather than junk modelling.

 

Scarlettangel's list of resources for joining things together is what we do......string is another good one.

[Inge]

for us it was always the process of actually learning how things could be stuck or joined together, that many materials can be used in one item and all the learning that came from it.

 

I feel they need to learn all this and are confident with to attempt to make a recognisable item, which will come eventually.

 

I do remember once using junk model material to make a car engine, we went and looked at one, took pictures, enlarged them and had them on the table.. some very good models of a wide variety of materials were produced.. none looked anything like an engine but they had been interested enough to go and use the area which had been neglected for a while, which was one of the reasons we did it, plus an interest shown in cars at the time..

 

i always remember asking my son ,(3yr old ) a long time ago now may I add. what he had made,

was it a wall for humpty dumpty as they had been focusing on the rhyme that week, and made all sort to do with it...

his reply.. no mum, cann't you see, its box with bits stuck on!

which is exactly what it was a cereal box covered on both sides with of torn up pieces of thick paper on it. very skilled as they were all in a line and did not overlap, and yes he had done it all himself..

 

 

Inge

[HoneyPancakes]

I agree with junk modeling being just that, but there are some parents who find it very difficult to praise their child's work if it doesn't look like something. For their sake, each term I try to do some adult led modeling to help the parents praise their child.

 

In my child's Reception class have seen each child make a 'building' which they can paint up and add to a street scape. They can choose what type of building they make. Simple and effective, but not free play.

 

Fe

[Guest]

I do sympathise with you Sarb, as I was extremely frustrated by this in my year one class before Christmas. I think it's down to them not having had any experience of this type of play before (don't ask what they did in reception ) and since it was a large year one class I wasn't able to devote much time to the adults guiding this sort of play.

 

I think the key problem is that they can't tell you that they have made anything and this demonstrates that although they are using the skills of joining etc they are failing to meet those creative development profile goals which does indeed suggest something is missing.

 

I would suggest you plan in a selection of adult led activities where you make things out of junk relating to the topic (eg. a village, an underwater scene etc), and try to get an adult to join the children's play in this area at least some of the time. If someone makes something show it to the whole class during carpet time and get them to talk about what it is and how they made it. This will probably spur them into extending their skills and actually make something where they are able to say what it is (this is the important first step, not so much that it looks like what they say it is).

 

In the end I realised that with my class it was simply that they had had no experience of junk modelling and just didn't realise that you could actually 'make' things with all those exciting boxes and bits. I think sometimes as adult we can forget that children do need to be taught or at least encouraged to make this connection.

[WChurchill]

I agree Kariana. I won't repeat what has already been mentioned but I found the best way for children to use these resources creatively was by modelling othe children's work (sensitively) and letting them convey their scenarios to the class. This will open up all sorts of possibilities for them!!

[emmajess]

I agree with junk modeling being just that, but there are some parents who find it very difficult to praise their child's work if it doesn't look like something. For their sake, each term I try to do some adult led modeling to help the parents praise their child.

 

In my child's Reception class have seen each child make a 'building' which they can paint up and add to a street scape. They can choose what type of building they make. Simple and effective, but not free play.

 

Fe

 

I think sometimes we need to educate the parents, too.

Edited May 7, 2010 by emmajess

[Guest]

I've been doing some junk modelling with my nursery class this week. We've been doing a topic on castles, and so have had a slideshow of castle photos on the whiteboard, been building with wooden blocks and duplo first and then I introduced the junk. As a carpet activity I modelled how to cut flaps around the bottom of kitchen roll tubes to create a larger surface for gluing it to a box, and then how to snip around the edge at the top of the tube and fold alternate ones down to create the effect for the turrets. Some of the children took this on board in their models and some didn't. Some just loved gluing and sticking the boxes and using the masking tape, while others made fantastic castles. I think you need to model something that is linked to a topic you are following and see how the children respond and then work with them to develop it.

[Guest]

Thank you to everyone who replied....I really appreciate hearing your own experiences and views....as an inexperienced EYFS teacher I just love having this forum to keep me on the right track....I love reception but do find it mind boggling sometimes xx

[Guest]

My current lot love the recycled materials in our art and craft area and they too seem to spend time gluing, cutting and sticking or even just putting one cardboard tube into a box and saying it's a model they want to take home. This week we did say it was a challenge area and the challenge was for them to make models of animals. One or two children made their models and this inspired others to have a go - including one boy who doesn't often choose this type of activity - he went to ask a friend to help him. He was so please with his model he decided to paint it.

[finleysmaid]

if you want to up the benefit to the parents perhaps stop calling it junk modelling and change to waste craft technology! it somehow seems to up the anti!!

[Inge]

ours was called recycled art..

 

Inge

[lynned55]

A few weeks ago I found a box of lolly sticks that had become stuck behind something in our cupboard. We had only used a few and when I ordered them was a bit cross because I had to order 1000 and I thought I will never get through that lot. Well how wrong was I!! The box was left on our collage trolley, just before the Easter hols and yesterday I discovered there is barely a handful left. They have loved them and used them in collages, junk modelling, making puppets, flowers, lollipops and this week has been windows frames and TVs. I'm amazed at how popular they have been and how inventive our children have been with them

[Guest]

you only have to take a look round the Tate modern to realise that creativity is an individuals idea made solid. One of the biggest mistakes we all make is wanting to see something we can make sense of and I think adults are guilty of instilling that into possibly the most creative things on earth- children!

 

How many of you have watched a child stare at a piece of paper not wishing to put pen to paper because they are worried they "can't do it" ie make it look like what they are intending or what you are requesting? At this stage, for me junk modelling/drawing/painting/singing/moving/ etc etc is all about giving confidence to have a go to experiment to explore. Thinking about the child who put a box in a box- all the things that they learnt from that exercise- I'm not going to bore you- you know-

 

it doesn"t need a name or a title it just needs to "be".

[Gezabel]

JUst thought I would throw a recent incident into the mix!

 

Our suppply of 'junk' was getting rather low so we asked parents to bring in anything relevant. They did us proud with carrier bag after carrier bag of boxes, tubes etc flooding in,

 

I put a huge selection out for the children to model with and instantly it was a case of 'bees around a honey pot' as it had not been an option for about a week or so,

 

I stood back and left them to it and it was fantastic, they 'measured', balanced, chatted about size and shape, talked about what they were building etc etc, Staff were particularly enthusiastic about children's delight and some great models were produced BUT

 

in my haste to re-provide the opportunity to do junk modelling I completely forgot to replenish the glue/spreader/brushes supply and I must have been having a bad day because as I watched the children having a wonderful time I didn't notice! What's more not one child asked where the glue was!

 

At circle time we 'discussed' what they had been doing and one child told me it was 'really good' because 'we didn't have to stick them together' we could just build, knock it down and build something else.

 

It made me think! has there always been an adult expectation that children will 'stick' - the glue and other sticking materials are now back but we have made it very clear that the children do not 'have to stick' and the result is fascinating. The vast majority of children clearly enjoy the process of creating models without the need to stick it together and have an end product. Of course this opportunity is available with other resources but I just find it interesting that by total accident on my part our junk modelling has taken a slightly different direction and is more popular than it ever was.

[sunnyday]

I put a huge selection out for the children to model with and instantly it was a case of 'bees around a honey pot' as it had not been an option for about a week or so,

 

 

 

At circle time we 'discussed' what they had been doing and one child told me it was 'really good' because 'we didn't have to stick them together' we could just build, knock it down and build something else.

How interesting - think I will give that a go!

 

Have to say that 'my' children enjoy cutting out from magazines etc. and then putting their pictures into envelopes to take home as opposed to 'sticking them' - same principle I suppose!

[KST]

Really great thread! Made me think about my junk modelling craft area. I usually let the children do their own thing and as above they stick them altogether which is great. I will sometimes put up some pictures of junk modelling that i have found on the internet which relate to the current topic/theme e.g. pirate ships but its up to the children to choose if they want to.

I do adult led tasks where it is more directed about what they are going to make, which teaches them skills to use, I always then put the materials used for tha craft activity out on the creative table and it is amazing how many childen will re-create the same activity but more independently and what's even better they usually add to it or change it to make it better!

 

If a child makes something particularly amazing, like recently a little boy made a laptop out of card (it really did look like one) then I really praise them and they show the class and talk about how they made it. That child loves to become the expert and help others to make one! My class just love the creative area and have persuaded the year 1 teacher to have one next year for them. x