Autumn leaf creatures

Activity: Autumn Leaf Creatures

What to do:

Harvey and I went for a leaf walk yesterday and made some leaf creatures with the lovely things we found.

1) Take some newspaper and scrunch it up into a ball. Wrap the ball in another layer and scrunch. Repeat this until you have a head. 

2) Do the same to make a body - just use more paper.

3) Use masking tape or cellotape to stick the head to the body. 

4) Fold a piece of newspaper lengthways about again and again so that you have a long tube.

5) Wrap the tube around the back of the body at the top and stick in place so that the arms stick out.

6) Use glue and cover your creature with leaves, adding stones or dried berries for the eyes and twigs for the mouth. 

* It is much easier to use a glue gun to stick the leaves so children will need adult help. 

* Harvey and I decided to try to give our leaf creatures happier faces next time! They look a little glum.

Babar the Elephant by Jean De Brunhoff

Make some cute Babar the Elephant finger puppets!

Resources: white card, pencil, paint, scissors

What to do:

1) Draw Babar on card or print out the template below.

2) Paint him.

3) Outline in a fine black pen and then cut out.

4) Cut out finger holes.

5) Play!

6) Use the template to make more characters.


 TIP: You could cut one hole and use your finger as Babar's trunk!

The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde

Activity: Make a beautiful garden just like the one that belonged to the Selfish Giant.

Resources: watercolour paint, watercolour paper (not essential), acrylic or poster paint, thick paintbrush, thin paintbrush, pencil, cotton buds, scissors, glue.

What you do:


1) Use watercolours with a wide brush. Use blues, pinks, yellows and greens in horizontal washes to create a beautiful background.










2) When dry, add flower detail to the foreground using cotton buds and acrylic or poster paint.

3) In pencil, draw some tree shapes on separate paper. Use my tree board on pinterest for inspiration

http://pinterest.com/hollyharveyeve/trees/

Then paint your trees in different shades of green watercolour wash.

4) When dry, add branches with acrylic or poster paint and a thin brush. You may want to add flowers to your trees using acrylic and a cotton bud, like you did for the foreground.

5) When your trees are dry cut them out and glue them onto your background.

Example 1 

Now you have a magical garden...

Example 2

Jack and the Beanstalk

 

An easy peasy way to draw an exceptionally tall giant!









Age: Upper primary

Resources: paper, pencil, eraser, watercolour paint, ruler

What you do:

STEPS 1- 4 I have drawn in pen so you can see! You do it all in light pencil because you are going to need to rub some lines out before you paint. 

1) Using a pencil on A4 white paper draw a point in the middle of the top and one at the middle of the bottom. Join these lines using a ruler. Then draw a line from the top middle to each bottom edge.

2) Next, draw a line about 2 cm from the top and one about 5 cm from the top. These are for the head and the waist lines. Then draw a head, a waist and arms.

3) Now add curved trouser bottoms and curved shoes.

4) Draw the sides of the boots and the soles then add the eyelets and laces. Add the sleeves of the shirt, braces and curves lines for the waist. Draw the giants face. Erase all the lines you don't need now.

5) Paint with watercolours. Add a background.

This idea came from Usborne Art Ideas: Big Book of Things to Draw

Here Come the Aliens by Colin McNaughton

 

Every child I have read this book to ADORES it! It's a fun one to join in with! Here is an easy way to create your own alien!

Activity: Create an alien!

Age: Preschool and lower primary but older kids will enjoy creating their own, more detailed alien

Resources: colourful paper, textas, scissors, googly eyes, felt hand and feet, glue

1) Choose some colourful A4 paper and cut into quarters. On one quarter, draw an alien body, using inspiration from the story. On another Draw an alien head. Make the head and the body quite large for the best effect. Decorate them with spots, stripes, fur, whatever you fancy.

2) Cut them out and place them on a black background A4 size.

3) Decorate them with bits and bobs from the dollar shop or whatever you have at home. I used googly eyes and foam hands and feet.

4) Make sure you place everything on a jaunty angle to make the alien come alive, then stick everything down.

5) Give your alien a name and write down what strange language it could be speaking in a speech bubble!

TIP: follow this link for a great 'build an alien' activity...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/printgames/build-an-alien

Elmer the Elephant by David Mckee

   

  

Try some paper weaving and colouring to make an Elmer picture!

Activity: Paper weaving & colouring

Age: Yr 1 - Yr 6 (See tip at the bottom for how to adapt to use with older children)

Resources: Black paper, Strips of coloured paper, glue scissors


What to do:

1) Measure and draw a 2 cm border inside an A4 sheet of thick paper or card.

2) Measure 2cm lines across the inside of the border and cut slits following each one with a craft knife and ruler or fold the paper lengthways and use scissors to cut them from the middle, stopping at the border.

3) Cut 2 cm strips of coloured paper lengthways.

4) Weave your strips through your A4 paper lengthways, being sure to to start each strip the opposite of the last one e.g. 'over, under' 'under, over'.

5) Finish weaving and stick down the end of each strip on the front and the back of the paper.

6) Now you can either draw Elmer over the top of your weaving or draw and colour him in and then cut him out and glue him on top of your paper weaving background. (I will add an Elmer shape for you to use at the bottom of the post) Add a googly eye if you have one!

  

TIP: Older children love to do paper weaving. Here is an example of year 5/6 work. This was achieved by folding the paper lengthways, after drawing the border, then drawing curvy lines, instead of straight ones, and cutting up to the border while still folded, then open out. The strips used to weave are different widths.