ECH 384: Science Education for Young Children: Giant squid

Violet the Squid

In our latest class we learned a little bit about the Giant Squid. The Giant Squid is about 33ft long, and weights around 440 pounds! Unfortunately these creatures only live for about 2-3 years. They have 8 arms, and 2 tentacles which they use to hold their prey. These are quite interesting animals, and children would have a blast learning about them.

This past week we were asked to create our own 3D Giant Squid. As soon as we were prompted to do so, my mind started to race with ideas about how to recreate this creature. I went online to try and get even more inspiration, but nothing was really catching my interest. I then started to think back about how I created 3D objects through out school, and I came up with the idea of paper mache. I went back and forth about this decision because I didn't really remember how to do it, but I decided to challenge myself anyway. My first step was to create an outline of the shapes that I would be using to create the squid. I had two of each shape, and then I taped them together. I left enough space so I was able to stuff them with newspaper. Once I did this with each shape, I took strips of newspaper, covered them with the paste, and started to lay them over the shapes. I continued this process until each piece started to take shape. I connected each piece with the paste and newspaper as well. Once each shape was covered with newspaper, I let it dry for a while. I began to lay the colored tissue paper down when the newspaper was semi-dry. I then repeated the process of paste and tissue paper where I wanted it. I let that dry, and then glued the eyes on. I attached the arms and tentacles on with little velcro spots. I approached this project as a challenge, and it was, but I had a fun time trying to figure out the challenges along the way.