Kitah Gimmel’s Metal Insects

The children really enjoy both building and bugs. These interests inspired this provocation. In the Atelier, the children were offered an assortment of loose (mostly metal) parts to use to create metal insects. There were random hardware parts, Tinkertoys, lids, CDs, screws, and washers.

First the children looked at images of insects to decide which they wanted to make.

Morah Jessica handed each child a square of cardboard to mount their insect on.

The children began selecting pieces to create the body parts of their bugs. First they chose a part for the body, lids often worked well for this. Next, they selected the wings. Many children used broken CDs for these. The children used bobby pins and wire for legs and antennae.

Once all their parts were chosen, they began adhering the pieces together using Weldbond glue. Once finished, each insect looked completely unique.