Pool Noodle Sculptures

This post is part of our Homeschooling with Your Noodle series.  You can check out all the other pool noodle learning fun here!  This post contains an affiliate link.  You can read my full disclosure page here!

 

We’re still having fun with our pool noodles even though all the pools closed weeks ago!  Today I’m sharing an art project that I did with the kids last week.  It was a two day project because it involved paint.  I saw this activity on Pinterest, but the link only went to this Facebook photo.

When I searched Casa Maria’s Creative Learning Zone, I couldn’t find a post on creating the sculptures.  She had a post on another art project that talked about painting noodle sections for other artwork that I based my project on, but now I can’t find that on her blog either.  That should teach me to save links immediately!

 

I began the project by cutting pool noodles into 1 inch sections with a serrated knife.

 

I didn’t have toothpicks on hand, so I broke some small wooden dowels into thirds and stuck them through the noodle sections to dip in our paint.  The kids had fun pretending they were lollipops as I finished up.

 

I poured a few different colors of paint onto paper plates.  I used Crayola’s Washable Kid’s Paint for this, which is a staple in my art supplies.  I would try acrylic paints if I did this project again.  The washable paint cracked on the pool noodles and flaked off a bit when we touched them.

 

The kids then gently pressed the pieces into the paint on each side.  The colors will begin to mix and the results won’t be as nice if it isn’t done this way.  We rolled the sides as best as we could to coat them in paint.

 

I took a discarded pizza box and punched holes in it with scissors to create a drying station.

Here are all of our pieces drying in the sun.  All those bright colors make me happy!

The kids and I collected small branches from a neighbor’s yard and stuck them in this pot.  Anything that I might have normally used to place our sculpture is in storage until we find permanent housing.  So, I did what all good moms do and improvised with what I had on hand.  This enamel pot is usually filled with flowers, now it is filled with a pool noodle tree. 🙂

We had lots of fun placing the painted pieces on the branches.  It looked really great, too!  Unfortunately, I had a really hard time getting a decent picture that did the end product justice.

 

One of the things that I did not anticipate was how much my kiddos enjoyed putting those noodle pieces on the branches.  Especially our 2 year old!  He kind of “laced” them onto the branches or pushed the branches through the foam.  At first I fussed and then had to remind myself to chill.  This project was about them, not what I thought it should be.  It became a hands-on art sculpture that was played with for days.

And that probably made me the happiest of all!

I’ll probably be wrapping up this series in my next post for awhile.  I’m running out of pool noodles and the stores are all out of them around here.  I did see light pink noodles at Kroger for 25 cents last week, but I passed because of the color.  I’m kicking myself for that one now!

If you’d like to see the other ways we’ve been using pool noodles in our homeschool, you can click on the image below.

And if you don’t want to miss the next post in the series, be sure to sign up for email updates here!