It is my pleasure to re-introduce our guest blogger Sandra Meadows with an awesome book-based art project for the little ones. Sandra has a delicious food blog, Meadows Cooks where she shares her love for food with healthy, unique recipes. I love this Honey Brioche Loaf and these Chocolate Scones look absolutely amazing! Sandra works at the Whitney Museum and we are so happy to have her expertise here on our blog. Here we go!
Always on the look out for new ways to engage our children in the arts and reading, Anna and I came up with the idea of an elementary school book club, where we focus on one story per week. We have each participating child read the story before we meet, and then we read it while everyone is assembled together. After we read the story we discuss certain topics about the book, the conflict, and the solution of the story. Once done with this short discussion we have the kids make a craft about the story.
For our first book, Caps For Sale, by Esphyr Slobodkina, I decided to focus on the main conflict of the story: when the peddler finds that his caps have been taken by monkeys, into the tree. We made trees out of paper bags and glued the caps, made from coffee filters and watercolor paint, onto the branches. Here's how we did it:
What you will need:
Brown paper bags White coffee filters Watercolor paint or food coloring pipettes or droppers Scissors Glue
To assemble the tree, first cut slits in the open end of the bag toward the first fold. Stop at the fold.
Then place the bottom gusset of the bag on the table and twist the rest of the bag around itself to form the trunk of the tree. Then twist two or three slits together to form the branches.
To make the cap, place the coffee filter down on a tray and wet it completely. Then drop color onto the filters, forming circular patterns. Don't worry if they run together. It becomes more interesting as the colors merge. Then draw ovals shapes on the filter and cut them out. Glue the ovals to the tree branches and enjoy the finished project!
Leave a comment