Making Monster boxes @WBCL

Monster boxes

This is one of the most fun and versatile of the recycled projects we have done lately. Kleenex boxes are easy to come by and sturdy so are easy for everyone to work with. The idea of a not very scary monster works well too. This project uses a large kleenex box (square ones would work too), styrofoam egg carton cups, construction paper, glue, and chenille stems. They covered the boxes, cut out sharp teeth and added eyes and tongues. We made the tongues curl by wrapping the paper on a pencil. Some got very "far out" on the antennae and eye locations. The younger kids and their parents are really getting into it sometimes. Lots of glue on fingers this week. Next week spiders.

Painting sunflower door hangers

It was time to do a bit of painting and this let everyone produce a great door hanger. It is rare that I lead the group in step by step painting as they are pretty artistic and I like to let them be as creative as possible. But I thought it might be fun to do the sunflower as a group then add a few details as they finished them.  I drew the sunflowers and ran the pattern on the copier so they could focus on the painting. we have had some really TINY sunflowers in the past. They got to learn how to cut out a circle without breaking the edge (most of them did) and how to get a 2 colored center using a Q-tip. 

The art classes are designed for around age 8 but younger kids do well with parents and older kids expand most projects.