Creating Sculptures with Packing Peanuts

A Creative Sculpture You Can Do at Home

A recent Studio drop-in activity, Zoo Art, invited participants to create an animal sculpture with biodegradable foam packing peanuts. Families with children of all ages had so much fun creating our Museum Zoo that we thought we would share the process so you can try it at home too!

You will know your packing peanuts are biodegradable if they dissolve when they get wet. The Styrofoam packing peanuts will not work for this activity. Save your packing peanuts from packages received in the mail. Our packing peanuts were ordered from a large mailing supply company to accommodate the number of visitors for this week long activity. When individual pieces are moistened on a damp sponge, the cornstarch is released, which causes the packing peanuts to stick together.


Children were asked to create an animal to join our zoo, a large sheet of paper designed with green, blue, yellow and white spaces for the animals. Some children wanted to create sculptures which resembled walls, rocks and food for the zoo. Such creative minds at work!

Many zoo type posters were displayed to inspire some ideas, including the poster Coming to Water by Bo Newell. You can support your child's creative endeavor by asking questions. "What parts of the animal are you making - tails, legs, fins?" Suggest what else your zoo may need - tire swings, pools, trees, etc. Not only does this activity support your child's creative endeavors, but working with solids in three dimensions is also the basis for understanding geometry. Children typically think only in two dimensions, so this activity helps them think spatially. "Even on a simple level, sculpting a zoo animal invites critical thinking about the animal's anatomy, environment and habits," states Marcia MacRae, our interdisciplinary arts specialist, who plans the free drop-in and pre-registered creativity programs in the Studio.

Check out our calendar for other planned Studio activities! View our summer newsletter for descriptions of these free activities with Museum membership or admission.

Grown-ups
You too can be creative, learn and have fun with biodegradable peanuts.
One of our creative Play Facilitators made this sculpture. Can you name the famous statue he replicated?

School’s out …but Play Never Goes on Vacation!

(Parts of this post were originally published in the June 2009 issue of Positively Naperville)


Play, it is assumed, is a natural part of childhood. Yet most educators would agree that play is disappearing from children’s lives. How children learn is as important as what children learn—and what children learn and take away from play experiences is endless!

Recently you may have seen the NBC5 news feature, The Pleasure of Play. When interviewed, Dr. Barbara Bowman, professor at Erikson Institute, states that in an age of jam-packed to-do lists filled with scheduled events, it's important to mark out a chunk of time and simply put "PLAYTIME" on the calendar.


How about putting “PLAYTIME at DuPage Children’s Museum” on your calendar? Designed for children up to the age of ten, DCM offers more than 150 exhibits with virtually endless interactive, open-ended, fun experiences for everyone! From the exhibits within our seven neighborhoods to our free daily drop-in programs developed around the integration of the arts, math and sciences, there are many shared experiences for multiple age and developmental levels within your family. DCM exhibits and programs empower children to set their own pace, transcending age and experience. New summer hours began June 1!

Looking for more reasons to play? Check out our Just for Grown Ups resource, Ten Reasons to Make Time for Play . Quoting experts and recent research, this paper supports the importance of play to a child's overall development and achievement.