Paper Crafts

Materials

Medium sized cardboard box (e.g. Graham cracker or Kleenex box)
Toilet paper tube
Construction paper
Scissors
Glue stick
Clear tape
Pencil
Crayons/Markers
Templates

Steps

1. Cover box with construction paper
2. Trace crenellations onto construction paper.
Cut out and glue the crenellation strip around the top of the box.
3. Trace the tower template, cut out, and glue around the toilet paper tube. Secure the paper with tape until the glue dries.
4. Trace the tower roof, cut out, shape into a cone with a base just slightly larger than the tower, and glue. Secure the paper with tape.
5. Attach the roof to the tower by spreading glue onto the top of the toilet paper tube and pressing the roof into place.
6. Add windows, doors and other decorations with crayons or markers.

Templates

Crenellations

Tower Base

Tower Roof

Sample Castle

Background

This is an art project I did with two first grade classes. The students were studying Nigeria in their classrooms, so one class retold a Nigeria folk tale and the other created a book of facts about Nigeria.

Before we started the project I discussed the role of the illustrator with the students. I told them that an illustrator is an artist who creates pictures for books that show or explain what is happening in the story. Then we looked at some illustrations from Caldecott award winning books. We looked a the pictures without the words first to see if we could tell something about the story, then compared what was happening in the picture to what the words said. I stressed to the students that the best illustrations give you a good idea of the action of a story, plus they can tell you things that aren't in the words, like how people or places in the story look.

Materials

Large (12x20) piece of white paper (one per student)

2 large (12x20) pieces of colored construction paper

Black Markers

Paint and brushes or Cray-pas or Colored Markers

Laminating machine or Clear Contact paper

Hole punch

Yarn or Binder rings

1. Choose a folk/fairy tale or other story that is familiar. You can use a set text or the students as a group can "retell the story in their own words." You can also make a "non-fiction" book by listing facts about a topic the students a studying, e.g. Nigeria, mamals, fire saftey, etc...	2. Divide the story so that each child has a sentence/paragraph to illustrate.	3. Draw a 2 -inch margin on the left side of each piece of white paper (this is where the pages will be attached to on another) and a 2-inch margin at the bottom of the paper for the text of the story.	4. With black marker, write each sentence/paragraph at the bottom, and the name of the child who will illustrate it on the back of each piece of white paper. This can be done by the students or by the teacher.
5. With paint, cray-pas or markers, students illustrate their sentence/paragraph. Remind students to stay inside the margins but still WORK BIG and fill the rest of paper.	6. Put the illustrated pages in order and number them. Write the title and illustrators of your book on one piece of colored construction paper for your title page and use the other as a back page.	7. Laminate each page or cover the pages in clear contact paper.	8. Punch 3 holes on the margin of each page. Connect pages by tying yarn loops through each hole or clasping with binder rings.

Materials

Black construction paper (9x12")
Colored tissue paper (variety)
Scissors
Glue sticks
Clear tape
Pencil
Patterns

Steps

1. Print out 2 patterns. Tape one to the black construction paper and cut out "stained glass" shapes. Repeat with second pattern and piece of black paper.
2. Using the black paper as template, trace "stained glass" shapes onto colored tissue papers.
3. Making sure to leave a small margin around the pencil line, cut out tissue paper pieces.
4. Sandwich the tissue paper "stained glass" between black construction paper "lead" by gluing the tissue paper pieces to one piece of black paper and then gluing the other piece of black paper on top. Make sure the holes line up on the black paper!
5. Tape to the window and enjoy!

Butterfly Pattern

Christmas Tree Pattern

Sample
Windows

The art of nature printing has existed for centuries. Before photography was invented, nature printing was used to illustrate books on the study of plants and medicine. This produced more accurate representations than drawings could and made plant identification easier.

a bell pepper flower

Materials
1. A variety of fruits and vegetables that have interesting shapes/patterns when cut in half, e.g. bell peppers, star fruit, apples, celery.
2. Trays with acrylic/poster paint spread fairly thinly in the bottom
3. Absorbent white paper (water-color paper is good)
4. Crayons/markers/colored pencils

Directions
Making nature prints is so easy it hardly needs any directions, but here are a few hints.
1. When cutting fruit/vegetable pieces for printing leave a big "handle" so little hands can dip them in the trays with out a big mess.
2. For optimal printing, the paint should be fairly thin on the fruit/vegetable pieces.
3. Kids may need an extra piece of paper to blot their fruit/vegetable before printing.
4. After the print dries, use the crayons /markers /colored pencils to decorate the rest of the picture space.

Extra Craft Idea:

Make a fish shirt!

For this you need a whole fish, acrylic paints, a T-shirt, some soft paint brushes, a container for water, wax paper, and some old newspaper to place inside the shirt so the paint doesn’t bleed through to the back. Mix your paints on the wax paper to achieve the desired colors and then use the brushes to paint the fish. Press the front side of the shirt around the painted side of the fish. Although it will no doubt smell fishy, wait 24 hours before washing the shirt or the color will come out in the wash.

All backgrounds and graphic elements
© 1999/2001 by Natalie Lintner
No work may be "borrowed" without permission
cover art used by permission from Amazon.com