Chihuly Inspired Kinetic Sculpture/Coral Reef Ecology Connection- Kindergarten through Third Grade

The class looked at the different designs of various corals and noticed design similarities with Chihuly's glass sculptures.  I saw the idea to use coffee filters, markers and liquid starch to make Chihuly sculptures.  I had mostly seen them displayed on a flat background.  I thought it would be visually appealing to display the work in a sphere form and hang it so that it could be a kinetic sculpture.  I did this activity with K-3rd grade during a Fun Friday to gather lots of designs.  The PE teacher was kind enough to donate a beach ball to our cause.  After the filters were formed around a plastic cup, sprayed with liquid starch and dried, I slowly glued each filter design very closely with a hot glue gun onto the beach ball.  Next time, I'm going to try it with a paper lantern so that it can light up from the inside (wish I thought of that before).