Wooden Spoons at The Coombes School

I really like making the most of every bit of space in an outdoor area. Trees are of particular value because the space around their base, the bark and the branches are all opportunities for displays and studies. By coincidence, Squiggle Mum has recently written a lovely post about how her children made a butterfly tree in the overhanging branches of a bush near their fence.

Here's a lovely art project that makes a super outdoor display that I like because it's so doable by one teacher with a large class of children. Hanging from an aspen tree in The Coombes School playground were lots of wooden spoons.

The children had to make their wooden spoon into a character of their choice. First they had to design the clothes and faces. If you notice the drawings are the same size as the spoons!

The children then used a variety of different materials, pens and wool to create their characters. Here's some of the results...

I liked the combination of the paper ideas and the wooden spoons displayed outside together.

Finally, the children in Years 1 & 2 came outside to write a story about their wooden spoon characters.

I can see so much potential in this activity. The wooden spoons would link beautifully into a historical project or to illustrate a story, which can then be re-told through a wooden spoon puppet show. If you have few or no trees but have lots of fences instead, then you might find my campaign to give ugly fences a makeover useful for more ideas about 3D displays.