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Willard Wigan - micro-sculptor
Ideas to Try
- Children of all ages enjoy the Matchbox Challenge. Supply individual children or small teams with a matchbox. Within a given time limit they must see how many items they can fit into their box. There must, of course, be no repetition.
- Like Willard Wigan, children are fascinated by minibeasts of all kinds. If appropriate, set up opportunities in the classroom for children to observe minibeasts and make drawings. Discuss with the children Willard’s fascination with ants as a child. (See Interview above.) If the children are inspired by this, they might enjoy designing and making their own ‘artifacts’ for a minibeast to ‘use’.
- Provide other static small objects for children to draw, both with the naked eye and using a magnifying glass or microscope. These might be seeds, pollen, tiny plant parts, grains – anything that requires close observation and concentration to reproduce and that is appropriate to the age group.
- Older children able to use a craft knife safely could be challenged to create the smallest sculpture they can achieve using plasticine or balsa wood. Remind them that a sculpture needs to be equally detailed on all sides.
- Give children the opportunity to experiment with enlargement and/or reduction. This can be done by two methods according to age.
- Provide each child with a sheet of large-squared paper. Ask them to draw a design on the grid. One example might be a stamp design.
- Now provide a sheet with squares half the size. Show the children how to reproduce their design by considering each square individually.
- Older children may prefer to draw grid squares directly on to a magazine picture – a face for example. This requires careful measuring with squares either twice as large or half the size of squared paper available in the classroom. They can now be shown how to produce an enlargement or reduction of the original. Teachers may prefer to prepare the magazine pictures in advance according to the age and ability of the children.
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