Wire

A fun idea to use in the classroom that would help the students understand a bit more on how important line is, is to use wire.

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Artist Alexander Calder

I have personally had a lot of fun using wire in multiple projects.  When I was up at college, I was in an art class and a girl had used different colored wire to make a picture of a face.  I was so intrigued!

Artist Polly Verity

A few years later I decided that I would get the guts up to try to wire sculpt myself.  I tried not to cut my wire too much as I thought it would be much more fun to use one continuous line to design an object.  The result was so fun.  I made many animals with swirly, springy looking wire.  

Made by Stefan, a wire sculpture out of paper clips?

All you mothers out there have used pipe cleaners I am sure.  

You could simply buy a package or two of pipe cleaners and give the class an assignment of sculpting an animal, or a flower, or even their neighbor.  

How simple is that?  Can you imagine how excited they would get while working with that? I can.

If I were working with younger children I would most definately suggest using pipe cleaners, but if you are going with an older age, why not go to the hardware store and just ask for a coil of wire.  They have a variety of it and it is fairly inexpensive.  You would just need to be aware that the thicker the wire the more difficult it will be to bend, thus the use of tools (like pliers) may be needed.  If you go with the wire, just cut it into equal amounts before going into the classroom and maybe be prepared with a simple example for your pupils to get an idea from.