Twisted Paper Sculptures

Today I am sharing a Paper Sculpture Project using just a few materials: Construction paper, scissors, glue, and paper clips (or tape). Enjoy!

First,  pick two sheets of construction paper that are different colors.

Then,  put glue on one of the pieces of construction paper.

Glue the two pieces of construction paper together like this.  With younger kids you may want to glue for them.

Now cut into you your paper with all different lines:  curvy, straight, wavy, zig-zag..... Do not cut any pieces off.  You could use those fancy scissors that cut different designs too.

Next gather your glue (tape), and paper clips.

Start twisting your papers every which way and use glue to stick and paper clips to hold the bend in shape.  For younger children that may have difficulty using paper clips (like my 5 year old),  you may want them to just use tape to hold their sculptures together.  Kids love tape.

Here is one of our sculptures drying with paper clips so it won't come apart.

Here are our finished Twisted Paper Sculptures.  You can see how cool the variety of color adds to the look of the sculptures.

If you like this idea....you'll Love our Construction Paper Strip Sculptures too.  Find out how to make them here.  

What have you been making with construction paper?

Melissa Jordan blogs over at The Chocolate Muffin Tree.  She is a former Elementary Art Teacher who loves inspiring other s with ideas on her blog.  Many of these activities she does with her 5 year old daughter.

Creating Rainbows With Toy Cars

Hi this is Melissa from The Chocolate Muffin Tree. We have been having fun with rainbows....hope you enjoy this post!

Rainbows have been buzzing in the blogosphere the past few weeks and we have caught the bug!  We created Rainbows with toy cars this past week.  Just the name sounds FUN...doesn't it?  My daughter loved the idea of painting with cars right away.

To create your own rainbow with car tracks you'll need: 

toy cars

tempera paint in all the rainbow colors 

a plastic lid or paper plate for each color of paint

large paper (we used 12x18 size)

Before we started,  I reminded my daughter of the rainbow color order and she remembered this video from last year: Roy G. Biv.  You could bring the colors out in order if you want the finished rainbows to be correct....or not.  My daughter dipped the car in the paint a few times to get the red to spread across the paper.

As you can see she continued on really well.....Beautiful.

Here is the finished rainbow.  I think it looks AMAZING!  Now she wasn't done yet...

My daughter had a blast creating car tracks without making a rainbow too.  Actually she enjoyed this even more!  Her cars were battling each other  and there was all kinds of pretend play going on during this process focused painting.

She created at least 5 or 6 paintings with cars.  A HUGE success and pretty rainbow too.

Be sure to check out our Styrofoam Rainbow Prints that we recently did too.  More RAINBOW FUN!

Have you been creating rainbows with your children?

Melissa Jordan blogs over at The Chocolate Muffin Tree.   She is a former Elementary Art Teacher  who loves inspiring others with her ideas on her blog.  Many of these activities she does with her 5 year old daughter.

Tie Dye Coffee Filter Snowflakes

I’m Melissa and I blog over at The Chocolate Muffin Tree  and I’m excited to be part of this collaboration at PreK and K Sharing.  I am a former Elementary Art teacher who loves creating Art with my 5 year old daughter and sharing it with the world.  I’m excited to inspire more and hope you check out my blog for a ton of Artsy ideas for kids! 

I’m sharing a project that my daughter I did recently to get us in the mood for the winter season: Tie Dye Coffee Filter Snowflakes!  Here is the finished product.

For this project you’ll need:

Coffee Filters

scissors

Water based markers in cool colors (blues. greens, violets)

newspaper

spray bottle with water

To create the snowflake first fold the coffee filter in half.

Then in half again.

If you want (and you think your children can cut through more layers) fold again.

Then cut on all the sides while the coffee filter is folded. We mostly did triangles which are the easiest shape to cut.

Then open up the coffee filter and it should look like a snowflake. Now you are ready to add some color.  Leave white showing and mostly outline the cut holes and go over the folded lines like this.

Lay the decorated snowflake on some newspaper (because the color will go through) and spritz with water from a spray bottle.  Do not over water or the color will completely run out.

After you have sprayed the snowflake,  let it dry for a couple hours.   You can display them on a window with tape or however you would like.

I LOVE this project because it is SUPER EASY and had beautiful results!  If you like this  

idea be sure to check out these:

Click here for Tie Dye Coffee Filter Snowflakes with Heart Shapes
Click here for Tie Dye Coffee Filter Easter Eggs

Click here for Tie Dye Coffee Filter Fall Leaves

Once you start thinking about all of the possibilities for snowflake fun and exploration the opportunities are endless. Here's a whole different concept, which combines simple materials and fine-motor work. The potential is endless: pattern or random it's fun in the making!!

Click here to see the process, more examples and close ups!!

Editor's note: Scott recently addressed coffee filters as snowflakes, but had his unique twist from the point of creative freedom -- the tug between what we as educators have on our agenda + the spirit of the children's vision. He also addressed the 'responsibility' in the clean up process. If by chance you missed his spin, just click back right here. I'm fascinated to see how these two professionals have approached a similar idea and have put their own stamp on the process and outcome. -- Debbie

While I've got my editor's hat on, I added this post to a linky for Thrifty Thursday and TGIF.