Stick Art

Last week I found a great blog post about Velcro Dot Craft Sticks at Powerful Mothering.  It inspired me to make some for my own classroom!

I purchased a pack of colored tongue depressors and some velcro at the craft store.  Each stick has 4 velcro dots-- 2 "scratchy" pieces on one side and 2 "soft" pieces on the other side.  We set a basket of the velcro sticks at our circle table as an invitation to play.

At first, my older students wanted to make letters.  It was so interesting to hear them problem-solve how to make round letters like "O".  The name on the left is their solution for MOM.

Then, they decided to see if we had enough sticks to stretch all the way across the classroom.  The students were sure that we would have enough!  The line of sticks started in our circle time area, and went under the tables and through the other centers.

It was close, but we didn't quite have enough.  The next day, one of the students asked if we could make more sticks.  He estimated how many we would need (5).  We made them, and then he realized that it still wouldn't be long enough.  So we kept guessing and adding until the line reached all the way from one side of the room to the other!

At the end of the week, two of my kiddos wanted to make squares.  They worked together to stack the squares on top of each other until they had used up the whole basket.

There are so many ways to use these sticks!  Have fun playing and learning with your children today.