Model Magic Insect Sculptures

I often like to connect what we are doing in art to what they have learned about in science class.  Insects can provide a lot of inspiration for artists.  The colors and designs in insects can be intricate, beautiful and amazing.

Start by showing the students pictures of many types of insects (or collect real ones, if you are brave.)  Talk about the parts of an insect.. head, abdomen, thorax, antennae, wings.  Looking at reference photos and begin sketching insects.  Encourage kids to use their “creative license.”  I tell them to change up the colors and designs to create their own insect, but use the photos and body parts for ideas.  Encourage them to draw all of the parts of the insect.

My students used Model Magic to create their own sculptures of insects.  Model Magic comes in all sorts of colors, including neons.  But, the cool thing about Model Magic is you can color it by coloring it with washable markers and then mixing it up in your hands.  My kids love to spend time changing the colors of the white Model Magic.  Seriously, they can spend the whole class period doing just that.

To make the wings, the students glued colored cellophane to cardstock.  Or, they cut thick clear transparency or plastic sheets.  I used materials I already had laying in the art room, so I am not sure the brand.  You can push the wings into the side to make a dent, then remove.  Put some glue in the slot, and then reinsert the wings.   Google eyes and pipe cleaners can be used to embellish your insects.  

After the insect is dry, you can use paint markers to draw dots and designs on top of the body or wings.  We also got out the glitter glue to make our insects look fancy!  You can tell some kids had a lot of fun with that!

Here are some books about insects to supplement this unit!  (Amazon Affiliates links)