Tissue Paper Rainbows
Lately I’ve been looking for arts and crafts that combine the principles of free art without completely setting aside the object lesson side. To be honest, it’s been a HUGE relief to stop worrying about whether the final project turns out anything like I imagined. Rather, I simply hand the girls the supplies, tell them or show them what I had in mind and walk away. Okay, I don’t always literally walk away, but I mentally walk away and just watch and see what they come up with.
Our current obsession is gluing. We literally go through 2-4 glue sticks a day, but they’re actively engaged in creating and designing, so I’ve just been stocking up during sales and trying to come up with more projects and mediums for them to glue!
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A Rainbow Craft
We read the story of Noah and the Ark in our Read-Aloud Bible Stories book last week, and I thought this would be a fun combination of talking about the story and gluing.
To start, I cut a piece of poster board in half (I tried to figure out how to do it on regular paper, and it just wasn’t happening, although you might be able to make it work with smaller tissue paper squares), and I drew a large rainbow on each.
I grabbed some tissue paper squares in rainbow colors from our stash and then added a colored dot to each level of the rainbow to give them an idea of the order. (And then I couldn’t stop saying “Roy-G-Biv” in my head for the rest of the afternoon.)
I suggested that they might want to start by gluing a colored square on each of the dots, and then I stopped worrying about the results of the project. Pumpkin Doodle “got it” right away and began gluing red squares along the top section. Monkey Doodle didn’t really seem to care what I had in mind and set to work on her technocolor rainbow!
I think they both turned out beautifully, and this was definitely a project that kept them engaged and focused for quite awhile (always the sign of success in my book). It was great for practicing colors, matching, fine motor skills and talking about the promise of the rainbow in the process.
And let’s face it, who doesn’t like seeing their art work display on a large piece of poster board at the end of the day?
Oh I love the rainbows!! You are so good at having super ideas for activities for your girls.
As a little I remember telling my mom I wanted to “cut & glue” but she’d reply she didn’t have anything for me to cute & glue. And now look… cutting fabric! heehee And I love scrapbooking when I do it… cutting & adhering paper & pictures.
My dc mostly hung in my sewing room when there was time for me to sew. And now look… one in Fashion Design.
Yeah for the creative times and for letting them work the project on their own after you get them started. Wonderful!!
LOVE THIS!!! and thank for introducing me to tissue squares - I’m definitely going to have to get some of those! They did such a nice job on them too!
so cute…I’m kicking myself for throwing out our old tissue just yesterday!!!! Oh well…there will be more!
My oldest is fascinated with rainbows right now!
I am SO doing this tomorrow with the girls!! I’ve had these tissue squares forever and have been dreading taking them out (for fear of making a mess…I know, get over it..lol). This is something the biggest and smaller ones can do.