Ages: 5 – 12 years
Time: ½ hour – 1 hour
MATERIALS:
Construction paper or Craft Foam in 6 colors
Silver glitter pen
Ball of jute or string or wire
2 dowel rods cut to 12” each Scissors
Tacky glue or glue sticks
Pencil/eraser
hole puncher
Patterns from the Banners project
- Ask an adult to cut the dowel rods so that you have two. Cross them in the middle and tie them tightly with a piece of string or jute or wire. Lay aside.
- Select the paper or craft foam. You may want to use a combination of papers and craft foam. Trace and cut shapes from the patterns used for the winter banner: Mr. Snow Man and Mrs. Snow Woman. Adorn them with scarves, hats/berets, noses that look like carrots, buttons, and a pipe for Mr. Snow Man. On a separate sheet of craft foam or construction paper, draw snowflakes with the glitter pen. Cut them along with the Snow Man and Woman. Draw eyes and mouth with a black marker.
- Poke a hole towards the top of the paper or craft foam shapes with a pencil or use a hole puncher.
- Then, lace a piece of string, thread, jute, or wire 6” to 8” in length through the hole at the top of each shape. Tie the shapes to the dowel rods. To balance the mobile, place two or more shapes to each dowel rod and be sure that some of the shapes hang lower (or higher) than some of the others. This is called balancing or making the mobile level. Ask an adult for help.
- Tie a piece of string on the ends of the dowel rods and hang it up. Does your sculpture move? What makes it move? How is this design different from the banner design? What are the differences? What are the similarities?