Birds and Nests Collage with Grade 1

A Fun Afternoon with Mrs. Clayton's Grade 1 Class

Visiting a Grade 1 class is always a delight!  Busy hands and busy minds going in all directions.  Mrs. Clayton's Grade 1 students at Royston Elementary were enthusiastic to say the least.  

We began by painting a blue sky background on heavy paper and while that was drying we cut out some of our collage materials.  Birds were from bright coloured paper.  For wings and tail feathers we used patterned papers and other miscellaneous material (fabric will work too). The branches and nests were cut from paper bags.  Newspaper was cut up to use for nest material along with straw and grass pieces and wool bits.  I even had some old sheet music we used to add a song to the composition.  And we used buttons for the eyes.  

Once the paint was dry the glue sticks sprung into action.

This was a super fun project!  I knew it would be when I saw how fascinated these students were with all the different materials. The process was much like building and they took to it quite naturally.

These works are fantastic in my books.  Seeing them just makes me feel joyful.  In fact as I'm writing this I can hear the morning birds outside chirping and it made me realize how  well these young artists captured their winsome spirit but also gave these birds some personality. 

Original idea and credits to:

http://www.artwithmre.com/2013/02/mixed-media-bird-nests-1st-grade.html

Scratch Paintings (Sgraffito)

Here's a fun project for a rainy day.  It's raining today in fact!  

It's all about scratching and kids love to scratch off paint.  All you need is paper, crayons, paint and a tool for scratching - we used the pointy end of a bamboo skewer and also the blunt flat end in some areas.  Try out different things, a fork, the end of a spoon, toothpicks, sticks.  You don't want to use something so sharp that it tears through the paper.  I find watercolour paper works well for this project. 

Colour the page entirely with crayon.  You can decide on a colour scheme or just use one colour or even random colours, that's up to you. Next paint over the entire page with black tempera paint, it scratches off the best.  Once it is dry you can start your sgraffito. 

1. "Sgraffito - a form of decoration made by scratching through a surface to reveal a lower layer of a contrasting colour." - google

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

Tissue Paper Flowers

Springtime/Summertime Flower making

This is a great activity for large groups and all ages.  

I remember making these flowers out of kleenex tissue for weddings back in the day.  Friends would get together and have flower making sessions and then decorate the bride and grooms car and other cars in the wedding party.  Tissue paper (from the dollar store) is stronger, will last longer and comes in so many gorgeous colours. 

Start with 8-10 squares of tissue paper stacked on top of each other.  The size of the squares depends on the size of flower you want.  For larger flowers use more tissue layers.  These squares are about 6 inches. 

Next, fold back and forth into an accordion 

  

Tie in the centre with a pipe cleaner (or string)

You can cut the ends on an angle if you want a more ruffled flower with fancy edges

Now the fun part

Separate the layers by pulling them towards the centre, one by one, until they are all pulled inward

And there you have it! Fast and fun!

Repeat

Equally lovely with a single colour or multiple colours