Cute & Cozy "Kittens with Sweaters" Craft

This is a super adorable cozy winter textile craft I did with a mixed class of Kindergarten, Grade 1, 2 and 3 kids yesterday on my last day of school before the Christmas break. It was the second last period of the day, so I was expecting crazy behaviour but the kids were all so great!!

This project popped up randomly on my Facebook feed a couple of weeks ago and I knew I had to do it. See the original post below. It was shared in a public art group:

 (Art teacher collaboration (elementary + middle + high school art teacher). 

I altered the project in a couple of ways. Thank you to the original poster for sharing this project :)))

So yes, you have to pre-cut all the cardboard 'rainbows'. I hate cutting cardboard so this was not fun, lol. If anyone has cardboard cutting scissors they could recommend, please leave a comment! I always try to use Amazon boxes for cardboard projects as they are a little thinner and therefore a bit easier to cut. I made a template out of cardstock, then traced and cut out 17 of these shapes. 

I'm lucky to have been given a lot of yarn donations of the years so I have a big stock pile. I went though it all and pulled out all the multicoloured yearn for this project. Each ball of yarn was different, so the kids could choose the one they like. 

For adaptations for the youngest kids or students with weaker fine motor skills. I highly recommend chunky yarn- it is easier to manipulate and is also faster to wrap.

I also made a blank template cat face outline that I photocopied. 

That way, the kids would draw their own cat faces.

I demonstrated to the kids then they went to work. They started by choosing their yarn and unravelling a length from the ball. They taped the end to the back of their cardboard with a small piece of masking tape. Then they wrapped the yarn all the way around the cardboard. We didn't use any glue.

The kids were SO QUIET at this stage- it took them a lot of concentration getting the yarn just wrapped just right.

Once they were finished wrapping their yarn, they cut off the end and Myself and the Kindergarten assistants helped them tape it again on the back. Then they drew and coloured their cat faces. They cut them out, then took them over to assistant who was manning a hot glue gun station. They chose where they wanted their face and it was glued on for them. Then another teacher, who was helping, asked each child what the name of their kitten was and they wrote the name on the back of the kitten- so cute!!

The kids LOVED the craft and asked afterwards if they could play with their kitten. 

They had a lot of fun with them!

Here are some of the finished ones I managed to snap of pic of:

 

Wood Slice Ornament Painting

This is the project I've been doing with my junior high classes the last week of school before the Christmas break. Wood slice ornaments!

I also offered this last year as a staff workshop. We had a lot of fun!

I bought wood slice ornaments from both Dolarama and Amazon. The Amazon ones were bigger but terrible. 50% of them cracked either the next day, or after they were painted. So 10/10 do not recommend unless you live in a humid climate, which I definitely do not. The Dollarama ones were great, though, with no splits.

Students used thin brushes, acrylic paints and some fine tip sharpies to paint these. 

Some finished Grade 7-9 ornaments:

 

Nutcracker Watercolour Paintings Art

My Grade 4-6 class are finishing up these adorably festive nutcracker watercolour paintings.

They had a choice to fold the paper and draw half of it and then trace it on the window to make it symmetrical OR to freehand the whole things.

We used the fantastic handouts from Art Projects for Kids to help with proportions. 

Then they outlines everything using a black prismacolor pencil.

Then, they had the choice of watercolours, markers or pencil crayons to colour their nutcracker. 95% chose watercolours. 

Once dry, they were carefully cut out. 

While their nutcrackers were drying, they painted 

white diagonal lines with tempera onto 12 x 16" red construction paper.

And they also painted snow on a small sheet of blue paper.

They glued their nutcracker onto the 'snow' paper, then onto the candy cane paper for a border. 

Here are some of the finished artworks: