Tick Tock!

Tick. Tock. Look, a clock! Children ages 3-5 joined me at the OKCMOA to create wonderful paper collage clocks inspired by George Nelson from the exhibition, George Nelson: Architect, Writer, Designer, Teacher.

The exhibition includes many wonderful things but we concentrated on his clocks.



In the gallery we read a book, Hickory Dickory Dock by Keith Baker. Taking a closer look at the Nelson clocks we notice many shapes. I ask the children to look very closely and tell me if they think anything is missing from his clocks. Immediate answer, Numbers! Correct. The Nelson clocks do not have numbers. We tell time by hand position and that is something the clocks have in common. Hands. Many of the clocks have "spokes" radiating from a center shape, commonly a circle. (to better explain radiating, we talk about sunrays, spokes on a tire, etc.) These are all things we think about as we head back to the classroom.



Everyone starts with a 16x14 piece of tagboard. This is our background. Now the children get to choose a color for the back of their clock from a stack of 12x12 cardstock. From this piece they cut out a large shape of their choice. We glue it down.

Now everyone has colored scrap papers, a black circle, pre-cut white strips, scissors, glue sticks, crayons and a metal brad.

We can use the black circle for the center of our clock or use it as a template to cut a circle from one of our scrap pieces of paper.

We cut two clock hands from scrap and attach them to the center of our circles with our brad. On the backside of our circle we arrange our spokes, or white strips and glue them down. We can now glue this piece to the center of our clock.



From here we cut shapes to put at the end of our spokes.



We also use Crayola Construction Paper Crayons to color or add details if we want.

Bright, beautiful Nelson inspired clocks!

You will need:
-Black tagboard or cardstock
-Colored cardstock or construction paper
-Scissors
-Glue stick
-Metal Brad
-Crayons optional