Painting or Sculpture? Frank Stella and 1st graders say "both!"

The first graders and I just finished a lengthy, but rewarding project creating painted sculptures. Using some online resources, we worked through an activity  (http://www.nga.gov/kids/stella/stella1.htm) that explained closely one of Frank Stella's painted sculptures about car racing titled Jarma II.  After learning about all the pieces of Stella's work, we started to look at how he may have painted the pieces of metal used in his piece. the general consensus from the students was that he did not use a paintbrush ( or at least that he didn't learn how to use a paintbrush from Mr. P!).  This is when the fun began.

First, each student was given a strip of white paper and asked to draw "clues" (example:  a closeup of a football's texture) of their favorite sport.  The next class was all about getting messy as we painted with everything except paintbrushes.  Toothbrushes, rags, springs, sponges, eyedroppers, nothing was off limits as the kids painted several strips of paper using different methods.

The next class was dedicated to the sculpture parts of our painted sculptures.  The students would glue down one end of a strip of paper, twist,turn, fold, or loop then attach the other end.  We kept adding strips of painted papers until we were all out.  I was so pleased with the results that I put them out on the bulletin board!  Great job 1st graders!