SMILING SANTA HANG-UP

Taken from Copycat Press 1987. http://homemakersjournal.wordpress.com/category/copycat-magazine/page/3/

Materials:
manilla tag board [for reproducible]
red, blue, white, and pink felt or paper
fluffy white craft yard
hole punch
white
scissors

If you have the resources, I would use movable eyes and pom-poms.

EVERYONE AN ELF

 Taken from Copycat Press 1987.  http://homemakersjournal.wordpress.com/category/copycat-magazine/page/3/

HAPPY HOLIDAY HANG-UPS

Taken from Copycat Press 1991.  It is out-of-print.  http://stores.ebay.com/Copycat-Store

MAY CEILING HANGINGS

The end of the year is near and you want to get one last art project done.  This is it!  This project needs done in several steps.  1. Students color butterfly.  Encourage neatness. Prior to coloring show different pictures of butterflies so students get the idea of how a butterfly looks.   2.  Students cut out butterfly on outside of line, putting name on the back, neatly.    3.  Students draw a picture of their face on a small paper plate.  Encourage lots of detail - mirrors help so students can see their face.   4.  Trace a circle on a large white construction paper a little smaller than the paper plate.  Show students how to draw flower petals around the circle.  Talk about Spring Colors.  Students need to color the petals of the flower.  This needs done with crayon very dark.  It will take time.  5.  Adult helper or teacher put the projects together - see pictures.  Use colored yarn to hang the pictures.Put child's name in the bottom center of the face side with black sharpie.

TORN PAPER BUNNY HEAD

An easy project that can be completed in a short amount of time.  Every student gets a piece of pink construction paper.  Guide the students while they tear the bunny face.  This is the most difficult part of the project.  Have students tear the eyes and nose from purple  paper, the whiskers and inner ears from black and the teeth from white.  Place all the pieces where they should be and then glue one piece at a time.  Back onto dark construction paper.  Add to this project with a poem or story.  If this rabbit is made smaller it is a cute front to an Easter Card.

RAINDROP WRITING

Read CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS and culminate with a bulletin board or ceiling hanger.  Have students color a rainy day picture, their favorite thing to do on a rainy day, write a rainy day story or create a poem.  Hang a real umbrella and use colored raindrops.

EASTER EGG COLORING DESIGN

This project can be done in a lot of ways.  First way that I like is to either lay an acetate on top of the egg pattern for the students to color and trace, or copy the pattern straight to the acetate for the students to color.  These can be put in the windows and add lots of colors on sunny days.  Be sure to use magic markers - permanent ones are great except for the smell, so keep your doors and windows open for ventilation.  Second way is to give the eggs to the students and let them color, cut out and place in the hallway with a GIANT EASTER BASKET and Easter Grass.  Third way is to blow up, print on tagboard (make sure it is not the slick side), color with markers, and cut out to hang from the ceiling.  Write an Easter or Spring Poem to put on the back side.  See MAY CEILING HANGINGS for another idea.

READING UMBRELLA

This is a great way to encourage reading at home.  Print the raindrops on blue copy paper.  The umbrella can be various colors of construction paper.  It is so cute to see all of these hanging in windows or from ceilings.

TORN PAPER FLOWERS

Need to bring a breath of fresh air into your classroom  for SPRING?  This is a very easy paper project.  Have a variety of scrap paper available to the students to choose from.  Children do better if the project is demonstrated first.  You can add a poem or connect to a book like Miss Rumphius.  These would be a beautiful gift for the elderly that stay at home!    

See another torn paper project: http://okscribbler.blogspot.com/2010/03/torn-paper-bunny-head_19.html

SHAMROCK SHENANIGANS

MATERIALS:

~ Shamrock Tracers - one per student, made from tagboard

~ Octagonal Tracers - several, or teacher pre-cuts the green octagon, or press with die cut

~ Crayons
~ Watercolors

DIRECTIONS:

1. Trace shamrocks onto white paper with green crayons.  DO NOT OVERLAP.

2. Decorate each shamrock with a different design.  (Brainstorm a variety of designs prior to project)

3. Watercolor wash with green.

4. Glue onto green octagon.

OPTION:

~ Write a poem to attach to the back of the octagon.  Hang from the ceiling.
~ Instead of tracing each shamrock, have students run off the shamrock with a line of green crayon.  This is a wider tracing area.

PAPER PLATE HANGING LEPRECHAUN

MATERIALS:
~ small paper plate 6 "
~ red, orange, yellow, brown yarn for hair and beard - 24" long cut into 1 1/2" pieces
~ dark green construction paper 5 1/2" x 6 1/2"  for hat
~ small shamrock - could be a sticker
~ green construction paper for body 4 1/2" x 6" (1/4 piece of paper)
~ belt - black construction paper strip or color with sharpie
~ legs and arms -  12" x 1" and 9" x 1" - green construction strips, folded accordian style
~ black construction paper 5" x 2" for feet
DIRECTIONS:
Have all materials ready for students to gather and use.  You can choose to place material in a center or put in individual baggies to pass out to students. 
1.  Students get paper plate and draw a face.  Encourage eyebrows, eyelashes, nose, teeth....details appropriate for grade level.   You could have movable eyes and fuzzy nose for younger students.
2.  Choose one color of yarn and cut into 1 1/2" pieces - use rulers.
3.  Trace and cut out green hat.
4.  Attach shamrock on hat and put your name on hat - last name with O' in front of it - O'Jacobi
5.  Attach green body to face and add a belt.
6.  Fold legs and arms and attach to the body.
7.  Trace 2 feet from black construction paper and attach to end of legs.
8.  Add hair to face and glue hat on top of head.
9.  Add beard.  You are ready to hang project from the ceiling or put on a bulletin board.

KITE ART PROJECT

FOLD AND SNIP FAN OR WHEEL

BLOTTO BUTTERFLY

This would make a great gift for the elderly that your students know. 

TISSUE BUTTERFLIES

This skill is very hard for students to handle.  So, that leads me to believe they should do something similar to this each year for developmental reasons.  Lots of ways to dress this project up: Glue on the front of a card to be sent out to someone special; write a butterfly poem, attach project to the back of the poem, and hang from the ceiling.

DANCING LEPRECHAUN

You need Brads.  You could hang, but don't need to.  Students love just the fact it moves.  This is another great opportunity to encourage best coloring for neatness.

SHAMROCK CAT