Week 12: Pop-up Christmas cards

Our last Christmas project was a card for the kids to give to family.  The cool twist is that these are pop-ups, which can be really cool, but challenging.

I had two designs (snowman and tree), that I printed onto card-stock to make it easier for the kids. I got the idea from a Christmas Crafts book. They just had to follow directions about cutting and then get some help folding. Then they could decorate and glue into some construction paper for final presentation.

Here is the template. Click for larger file to print.

Week 11: Plastic painted ornaments

With the gracious help of another mother, Mary Maxwell, we did some special ornaments.  She had a supplie of clamshell type clear palstic ornaments. They were balls and stars.  We had the kids put a few quirts of acrylic paint into the inside of the clear ornaments. (the less, the better) Then they close the ornment snuggly! and shake it around. The result is a marbled look inside.

The only problem is that if the kids use too much paint, it puddles in the bottom and does not dry.  Otherwise the kids had a blast. Thanks Mary!

Week 10: Music Note Angel ornaments

For the 5-6 grade I did not do the simple snowmen I did with the younger kids. For the older students I did a project from two years ago, that remains one of my favorites.  It is an ornament made out of sheet music formed into an angel.

I made a template with downloaded sheet music, but you can just photocopy some sheet music or download from the internet. I used "Angels We have Heard on High."  Form your sheet music into cones about 3 inches tall with a small hole at the top.

Other items needed:

shiny pipe cleaners

little jingle bells

small flesh colored wood beads.  Use Sharpie to put face on.

Small 2-3" shiny or white doilies

glitter

This is what you do:

1. After cones are built, twist a jingle bell on end of pipe cleaner

2. Insert pipe cleaner up from bottom of cone thru "neck hole" 

3. Put bead "head" on pipe cleaner

4. Wrap pipe cleaner around finger and twist once or twice to make halo and keep bead on.

5. Use rest of pipe cleaner as hook.

6. Glue half-folded doiley to back of cone as wings

7. Add glitter to bottom of skirt and/or buttons etc.

Week 10: Paper plate snowmen

I'm a bit late posting these, but December can be a real bear with spare time. We had three weeks of art during the Christmas season, and there are so many good holiday projects out there, but I usually try to do some ornaments and cards.  This projects is not really either, but is a lot of fun and easy as pie...plate, that is.

I should probably write a book on art projects made from paper plates (or find the books that undoubtedly have already been written!)

This project uses three plain white paper plates. I used a large and two smaller ones. I attached them with the metal brads that look like thumbtacks with wings.  Then it is up to the student to make a hat, scarf, boots, face and buttons out of whatever you have on hand: paper, twigs, pipe cleaners, sequins, puffballs, etc.

Each one turns out different and really cute.

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For those who finished early, I showed them the classic paper plate dove from my childhood.

Week 9: Thanksgiving Pasta Collage

What's Thanksgiving without food?  I wanted to use that theme in a mosaic/collage way, so I brought out the trusty dried pasta and beans.  I ended up buying a bunch of different bags of pasta and beans, so that the kids would have a variety of shapes and colors to work with.

To keep to the theme, I had a few samples of holiday images like turkeys, pilgrims and cornucopias for the kids to draw inspiration from. For the 1-2 graders, I predrew some pilgrims on their cardboard, so the whole time was not spent drawing.  The fun part is gluing the pasta!

Once the kids got a a drawing on their cardboard, they could start gluing. The turkeys ended up looking great with the multicolored/shaped pasta like spirals and bow-ties. The Pilgrims really benefied from black beans and rice along with the lacey pastas and wagon-wheels.