Materials

• Cardstock
• Various items to make a textured appearance on paper (this could include scrappers, sponges, utensils, popsicle sticks, a bath poof etc.)
• Paint
• Smocks
• Scissors
• Craft tray or washable tablecloth
• Cloth
• Glue
• Glue gun
• Construction paper
• Cardboard box (for the frame)
• Embellishments (craft jewels, buttons, ribbon etc.) *Optional

Directions

• Have an adult cut the bottom off of a cardboard box and cut out the centre to form a frame (as shown in the photo) OR ave an adult cut out four strips of cardboard (two longer and two shorter to form a rectangle) to make a frame.  Glue it together with craft glue (and allow it to dry overnight) or have an adult glue gun the corners.

• Don your smock and lay your frame out on a craft tray or tablecloth and paint it.

• Sketch and cut out the monster you would like to make.  That way you can visualize what colours you might want to use and how much of each.

• Put the colours of paint you want to use for your project into shallow trays.  On cardstock or another type of thicker paper create create various textures, using different kinds of tools such as scrappers, spools, sponges etc.   When I was a teacher and we did a similar activity I would give each student a large piece of paper that they would divide into sections using different colours and tools for each area.  We had a tray where they put extra pieces after cutting out what they needed to share with others in the class.

• Here are a few sample textures:

Scraper

Foam Roller

Bath Poof

Spool

Toothbrush

Scraper

Foam Dabber

• Trace the pieces of your monster onto the back of your textured pieces flipping over your tracers.  Cut out your pieces of texture paper.

• Glue them onto your large construction paper, forming your monster.

• Add any embellishments you might like.  Allow to dry overnight.

• Glue your construction paper to the back edge of your frame.  Allow to dry overnight.

• Display your monster portrait.

Purpose

• Learning various techniques to create textured appearances

Safety Notes

• Exercise caution when using scissors
• Have an adult carefully cut the cardboard for you

Materials

• Scissors
• Glitter
• Craft glue (We’ve found Crayola brand dries clear)
• Twine
• Hole punch
• Twine, string, beading or fishing line
• Beads
• Craft hoop
• Plastic zippered bag
• Food colouring
• Toothpick or old fork
• Craft tray
• Smock
• Embroidery floss (We found this helpful when we went with the sun catcher option)
• Ribbon

Directions

• Don your smock.  Put your plastic zipper bag in a craft tray.  Cover your plastic bag with a section of glue.  Make sure that there are no open spaces.

• Add a few drops of food colouring, should you like.  Mix with your toothpick or old fork.

• Sprinkle with glitter.

• Allow to dry in a sunny spot for several days.

• When your glue is dry, cut out shapes that you may like.  We went with stars.

• Have an adult punch a hole in one end, using a needle.

• Lace onto twine, string, cord or fishing line.  Add beads should you like.

• Attach your strings to a craft hoop.  Our son wanted it to be more like a sun catcher to hang in his window rather than a mobile so we wrapped a portion of the hoop with embroidery floss to hold the strings in place.  Attach ribbon or more string, cord etc. to hang your creation.

• Have an adult hang your mobile from the ceiling or hang your sun catcher in the window.

Purpose

• Cutting different materials.
• Lacing beads etc. is a great way to develop one’s fine motor skills.

Safety Notes

• Use non-toxic products
• Exercise caution when using scissors
• Wash your hands after using glitter.
• Use twine, string etc. with adult supervision as it may be a strangulation hazard.
• Have an adult hang your mobile.
• Beads can be a choking hazard so keep them out of reach from children 0-3 years of age or those that tend to put thing in their mouths.

Materials

• Balloon (to be blown up by an adult)
• Small cup
• Pom poms
• Craft wire
• Scissors
• Craft glue
• Needle
• Embroidery floss
• Ribbon

Directions

• Have an adult blow up a balloon a little bit for you.

• Put a bit of glue into a container.

• Cut lengths of embroidery floss.

• Dip them in the glue.  Pull off the excess between your pointer finger and thumb, putting it back into the container.

• Have an adult tie the end of the floss to the tied portion of the balloon.  Go down the balloon vertically to provide some anchorage for when you wrap the floss around horizontally.  Wrap your egg sac horizontally and verically until you reach the desired coverage.

• Put it into a small cup to dry.  Depending on the amount of glue you used, it may need to dry overnight or for several days.

• Carefully pop the balloon and pull it out of the egg sac.  Gently pull off any excess dried glue.

• Take your two pom poms and attach them together with embroidery floss.  Knotting one end of the floss, sewing them together through the middle of each pom pom and then knotting it again.

• Have an adult cut four lengths of craft wire and stick them through the middle of the larger pom pom.  Bend them into “leg shapes.” Should you like, wrap the legs with black embroidery floss to make a more polished look.

• Attach your spider to the egg sac with the wire legs and attach the egg sac to a Halloween gift with ribbon.

• Give your gift to someone special!

Purpose

• Make a likeness of something.
• Thinking of others.
• Working with various materials.

Safety Notes

• Exercise caution when using scissors
• Have an adult blow up the balloon for you.
• Have an adult cut the wire for you.  Be careful as it might present sharp ends.

Many of our friends and relatives donate amazing things to us to re-imagine.  The wood beads in the necklace came from a mom at school.  (Thank you V.!) Together as a family they make homemade Christmas presents and then she donates the leftover items to the school.  The Kindergarten teacher has a very well loved centre called, “Make & Take” where the kids create various things of their own imagination, developing their creativity, fine motor skills and planning.  In our city we have a re-use centre where you can donate and purchase (for a small amount) all sorts of materials to re-imagine. Many other municipalities have this with the profits supporting community environmental programs, education and initiatives.  Garage sales are often another good source for fabric and supplies.  Re-using items allows us to enjoy the act of creating and reduce what potentially goes into the landfill.  Have you re-imagined something?  We’d love for you to share it with us.

Materials

• Cardstock
• Craft glue or Modge Podge
• Paint brush
• Tissue paper (yellow & orange)
• Pencil/eraser
• Lace (We recommend a magnetic detachable clasp for younger children for safety)
• Hole punch
• Beads
• Permanent black marker
• Whiteout pen (To be used with adult supervision)
• Craft tray
• Smock
• Laminating supplies or clear contact paper.

Directions

• Sketch out the shape of a butterfly.  Cut your butterfly out.

• Don your smock. Tear and cover your butterfly with pieces of tissue paper, using both a layer of glue underneath and over top of the tissue paper.  Be sure to wash your paintbrush immediately after.

• Allow to dry overnight in your craft tray.  Trim the excess tissue paper.

• Repeat the process on the other side.  Allow to dry and trim.

• Using your black pen pen, colour the butterfly’s antennae, body and wing pattern.

• With adult supervision, colour in the white areas of the wing pattern with a white out pen. We did this before applying the permanent marker, but suggest the reverse as it may be easier for some children.

• Cover your butterfly with clear contact paper (sandwiching it in between the sticky sides) or have an adult laminate it.

• Punch two holes into your butterfly.

• Lace your beads and your butterfly to create a necklace.  We used the ends to form a loop and sewed them (as seen below), hiding the excess into the bead.

• Enjoy!

Purpose

• Learning a bit about the monarch butterfly’s behaviour in Fall.
• Cutting different materials.
• Lacing beads etc. is a great way to develop one’s fine motor skills.

Safety Notes

• Exercise caution when using scissors
• Use twine, string etc. with adult supervision as it may be a strangulation hazard.
• Remove your necklace for play (e.g., on the playground) to avoid strangulation.

Materials

• Clear large bags
• Thick permanent marker
• Leaves
• Rake

*You may want to don a smock for this or wear play clothes in case some of the marker gets on your clothes

Directions

• Rake your lawn and fill your lawn bags with leaves.

• Using your permanent marker create spooky scenes, characters or messages.  You could do this by using either the positive or negative space.

• Display them on your lawn.

Simple Jack-O’-Lantern

Vampire, Evil Scientist

Monster

Witch

Werewolf

A few of our neighbour’s bags:

Purpose

• Drawing on and with different materials to various scales

Safety Notes

• Be sure to exercise caution when using a permanent marker to protect clothing and surfaces.

Materials

• Wooden clothes pins (the type seen in the photo)
• Magnetic self adhesive strips
• Pencil with eraser
• Scissors
• Fine glitter
• Craft glue
• Small container
• Craft tray
• Sheet of paper
• Smock

Optional

• Cardstock
• Printout: Starry Night Pins starry night clips

Directions

• Purchase or re-use wooden clothes pins.  Peel a bit of the backing off of the magnetic strips and cut small sections to go on one side of the clothes pins (so that they will stick to boards, fridges etc.)

• Don your smock.  Put a little bit of craft glue in a small, shallow container.

• Dip the eraser part of the pencil into the glue and make dots on your clothes pins.

• Put your pins on your piece of paper in  your craft tray (to catch excess glitter).

• While the glue is wet, sprinkle your pins with glitter.  We used gold, silver and blue for a starry night effect, but select colours that appeal to you.

• Gently wash your pencil eraser.  Shape your paper into a funnel and put it back into a container or save it for an upcoming project we are going to show you!

• Let your clothes pins dry overnight.  Use them to hang up all your beautiful projects.

• Or print the provided sheet on cardstock, folding it on the dotted line and attach the clothes pins.  Write your name and give the pins as a gift.

Purpose

• Making ways to display your work, showing pride.
• Thinking of others.

Safety Notes

• Use non-toxic products and wash your brushes immediately so as not to damage them.
• Be careful with pins as they sometimes can pinch.
• Wash your hands after using glitter.

Materials

• Crepe paper (We recommend heavier weight rolls for pliability, but you could also use folds.  We used blacks and golds/yellows, but use whatever appeals to you!)
• Floral tape
• Artificial stamens
• Child safe cotton swabs
• Scissors
• Tacky glue
• Fringing scissors
• Tissue paper
• Grape vine wreath (Or something similar.  Ours is made of willow)
• Sticks
• Glitter
• Shallow container
• Ribbon
• Plastic Bugs (I happened to have lots of these leftover from when I was a teacher which served as the inspiration for the wreath!)
• Glue gun/glue (sorry we forgot to include it in the photo!)
• Smock

Source List

Here is a list of some of the stores that we have used in making crepe paper projects.  We selected them both for the products and the customer service that we received.

Double Sided Crepe

This is the fold type and is lighter weight, but what makes it special is that it is often two colours put together so it draws attention in a project.

• 32° North http://www.vintage-ornaments.com/  or http://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/32NorthSupplies (ships world wide)

• The Paper Place http://www.thepaperplace.ca/ (Canadian)

Crepe Paper Rolls

This is the heavy weight variety and has amazing pliability.

• Carte Fini http://www.cartefini.com/

Floral Tape

• Irina Boutique http://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/irinaboutique or a florist shop

Stamen

• 32 ° North http://www.vintage-ornaments.com/  or http://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/32NorthSupplies (ships world wide, has a large, unique selection)

• Irina Boutique http://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/irinaboutique or a florist shop

• Duchess Trading http://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/duchesstrading (vintage and one-of-kind)

Directions

Take a peek at our  STEP-BY-STEP VIDEO http://make-it-your-own.com/crepe-paper-flower-wreath/ on making flowers.  Then adapt the colour scheme for Fall or Halloween!  OR see the steps below:

• Go out on a nature walk and collect sticks for a later step.

Flower Centre (Stigma)

• For children (or adults) just learning, it is good to start with a child safe cotton swab, as it is easy to hold and manipulate.  (You can later progress to spun cotton shapes and floral wire or many other pre-made centres on floral wire).  Cut off one end of the swab.  Cut off the little tip on the remaining end.

• Cut out a small square of crepe paper (that you have already stretched out).  Depending on the size of your swab, it will be approximately 2.5-5 centimetres/ 1-2 inches by 2.5- 5 centimetres/1-2 inches in size.

• Using tacky glue, fill in a circle of glue in the centre of the crepe paper square.  Place the swab in the glue and twist the paper around the stick portion of the swab. Secure with floral tape.  One way to do this is to hold the swab in one hand and twist it, while pulling the tape almost up and over (it must be stretched to activate the glue).  Once you have wrapped around the bottom edge of the paper, securing it to swab stick, then wrap down the stick at a diagonal angle to hold it in place.

Stamen & Fringe

• To cut a fringe, stretch out your crepe paper and then fold it in half.  Cut down from the fold (either with fringing scissors or with regular scissors cutting about 3/4 down the height of the crepe, making parallel cuts).  If you plan on making many flowers you can do a long strip and then cut it into portions about 2. 2.5-5 centimetres/ 1-2 inches by 2.5- 5 centimetres/1-2 inches for each flower.

• If the stamen is double-ended, fold it in half.  Put some glue on the bottom of the fringe, making a thin line.  Put your stamen in between the flower centre and the fringe, wrapping the fringe around.  Secure it in place with floral tape, wrapping down the stick of the swab.

Petals

• We show a very basic petal.  You can experiment with various shapes and/or ones that are joined.  This is just one example to get you started.

• Cut strips of crepe paper and stretch it horizontally.  You can then stack the strips and cut a few petals at a time to make them uniform or each on their own for a more organic look.  You can then stretch the upper portion of the petal (between your thumbs and forefingers, pulling outward to give some shape to the petal (making almost a slightly boat like shape.)

• Put a thin line of glue at the bottom two petals and place them opposite each other on the swab stick (slightly overlapping them).  Cut a longer piece of floral tape and secure those two petals (leaving the excess tape for the next few sets of petals).  Repeat with another two petals, placing them in the open spaces and secure with the tape.  Continue until you reach your desired fullness.  When you have completed, wrap your floral tape down the stem.

Embellishments

• Some basic embellishments might include adding a stripe or dots with a metallic pastel or marker to the petals before attaching or adding similar details with glue and microbeads or fine glitter post forming the flowers.

• We then attached the flowers to sticks with floral tape. (Tip: It is important to stretch it and then pull it taut to activate the glue.)

• We took the sticks and wove them into the wreath (you could glue them into place with a glue gun should you like) after winding the ribbon around to create some additional interest.

• Have an adult glue on the bugs using a glue gun.

• Allow to dry and hang up.

Purpose

• Developing fine motor skills, using a variety of materials to create a likeness of an object, item

Safety Notes

• Use scissors with adult supervision
• Follow the directions on glue products
• Be sure to ear a smock to protect your clothing
• It is recommended that an adult use the glue gun.

Materials

• Cardstock
• Printer
• Embroidery floss/ and a needle
• Scissors
• Printout of templates: With dots: kid-drawn_sewing_template2  Blank:  blank_sewing_template

Directions

• Print out the provided pumpkin templates on cardstock or draw your own.

• Cut your shapes out.

• Put a knot at one end of your embroidery floss and thread your needle on the other end. (You may need a bit of adult help for this.)

• Follow the dots on the pumpkins to help you sew (As seen in the photo).

• Or use your embroidery floss to fill in the space between the dots.

• Add any sewn details on the blank pumpkins that you might like.

• When you are done you could add writing to the pumpkins and make them into cards or perhaps you could write a story about your particular pumpkin.  For example, what was it’s journey to becoming a jack-o’-lantern?

Purpose

• Developing fine motor skills lends to muscle development and hand eye coordination for activities such as writing, cutting etc.

Safety Notes

• Use scissors and a needle with care and adult supervision.

http://olga-ekb.ru/story/2014/10/12/osennie-listya-iz-fetra

Here are her ideas:

• Use the leaves as props to identify colours particularly those that are typically seen in the Fall.

• Play a memory game where the children look at the leaves and then one child removes a leaf for the other children (while they are not looking) to try to guess which one it was.  Add more items depending on the children’s age.

• Provide children with various sizes of sticks to create a tree, identifying what would be like the trunk, branch, twig, looking at the difference between leaf and leaves (singular and plural spelling changes).

• Or using your hand to make the tree:

• In the comments section, Olga further suggested using the felt leaves for learning the various types of tress they came from or to make a felt tree for the leaves and show how they change with each season.

Included in the post were theses links:

• The previous year the children made trees out of found branches (another idea we love) and painted their own leaves, along with making leaves from torn paper: http://olga-ekb.ru/story/2013/10/20/osen-v-klube

• They also used leaves for rubbings, making prints and as an inspiration for painting: http://olga-ekb.ru/story/2013/10/02/osennee-tvorchestvo-v-raznykh-tekhnikakh

Thank you again Olga!  You truly seem like you enjoy working with children and I can imagine from your ideas, they enjoy learning with you!