What can you make out of sticks?
The first thing to figure out is how to attach sticks to each other. This is a puzzle for you to solve.
Here are some ideas:
- Pipe cleaners to wrap around the sticks
- Wire wrapping
- Playdough or plastercine to ‘stick‘ the sticks
- Yarn or string to tie them
- Masking tape to tape them
- Elastics to wrap them
Some ideas grown ups might use:
- Drill holes and whittle ends
- Hot glue
In my backyard we used elastics, yarn, scissors and my clippers so we could cut them to length. Using yarn means you have to learn to tie a knot. I know many of you know how to tie knots because you learned with me and Miss Matthia. For those of you who don’t know how to tie a knot yet you can learn how here at animatedknots.com.
If you don’t get it at first, try try again!
When I learn a new knot I mess it up LOTS and LOTS of times before I learn to do it properly.
Practice a little in your house tying knots around chair legs or felts or pencils. When you’ve got it you’re ready to head outside with your yarn and scissors and find some sticks!
To the grownups:
This can be setup as a tinker tray in your kitchen or backyard inviting your child to puzzle it out and get creative! If you are new to tinker trays you can read all about what they are and why they are awesome for little creative minds here at Little Learners.
My youngest really struggled with this at first because I approached it wrong. I told him we were going to make sculptures and he really wanted to make a car :/ oops. So….learning from my mistake keep it more open ended or ask if they can make simple shapes like a triangle or square. Some children might really like to make a letter from their name.
Once I opened it up and added some more materials (we started with just yarn and scissors) he really got going and got excited about his creations.
I did have to show him how to wrap an elastic and get two fingers in it to make space. I also had to remind him how to twist the wire/pipe cleaner to ‘lock’ it into place. Then he was good to go.
This is a VERY open-ended project so some children who are used to making specific things might struggle to get creative. That’s ok! If they end up with a pile of sticks wrapped together in a ball – perfect. Paint it and hang it in a tree. This will support their creativity and encourage them to try again. You can bridge in skills as they go.
We are going to paint our creations and then hang them in the yard.
Make sure you take a picture of your sculpture and share it with me and all your friends.
The first step is to take two sticks and your yarn all in between two fingers and hold tight 
Then you wrap your yarn around the two sticks leaving long tails you can tie 
Tie two knots to make a square knot. Ask a grownup to show you how. 
These are the same sticks from the picture before just tied and twisted a little to make an X 
I’ve almost made a triangle 
Tada! Triangle 
I tied the triangle to the bottom of my tipi house. It was really hard to do! 
I made a star! This was hard too. Elastics would have been easier. 
My youngest made this A frame with a base out of elastics.