art teacher - Roylco

Loralee Lewis uses our Paper Doll Pads!

Loralee Lewis makes beautiful stationery for sale at her website here. Loralee’s experience with paper makes this Paper Doll Pad project an innovative craft for Thanksgiving! Celebrate diversity with fun paper doll characters for your Thanksgiving table!

Loralee Lewis posted her craft on November 22, 2008, entitled: “Gathering Together Activity and Thanksgiving Kids’ Table.” She notes that Thanksgiving is a time to celebrate diversity, and what better way to do so than through customizable paper dolls?

The Paper Doll Pads come in a variety of skin tones! Use construction paper for the clothes and decorate the faces with black marker. To stand the paper dolls up, glue on clothespins to the paper backing! Loralee shows you how at her blog post.

Tape the hands together to represent the importance of community! Tip: Decorate characters to look like historical figures.

Thanks to Loralee for this post!

Images and original post © Loralee Lewis.

This post was not sponsored for a review. At LittleFingersBigArt, our mission is to present to our readers and viewers the newest and most creative craft ideas that fans of Roylco have made on their own. Our goal is to allow you and other educators and parents to reuse our products in fun ways so that children always get the best educational experience from them!

We’d love to see more ideas like this one! If you’ve got a brilliant craft idea or have made a version of one of our crafts that you would like to share with us, send an email to subscriber@roylco.ca with photos, descriptions or a link to your work. We will create a feature post and link back to you with full credit. We’d love to hear from you!

Posted on October 11, 2013February 12, 2020 by Raman

Thanksgiving Hat

Inspired by what our crafters at the Roylco Summer Art Camp made, here’s how to put together your unique Thanksgiving Hat! Use the R28421 Scissor Skills Paper for this craft.

Age: 4+

Duration: 15-20 minutes

You’ll Need:

• R28421 Scissor Skills Paper

• R5870 Linear Rubbing Plates

• Sheet of paper, 8.5 x 11″ (20 x 28 cm)

• Crayons

• Scissors

• Tape

Putting together the Thanksgiving Hat is super simple!

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For this activity, you can decorate the head band with any of our special rubbing plates!

Fold a sheet of paper lengthwise in half. Unfold the paper and cut along the fold line to make two equal strips of paper. You’ll need both strips of paper for the entire headband.

Place the headband on top of a rubbing plate. Use the side of a crayon to rub the pattern onto the headband.

I used a different pattern for the top and bottom headband edges. Try it out with a different color too!

Choose one of the three types of feathers to decorate your headband with. We’ve made an easy set of feathers for beginners with which to practice their scissor cutting skills. The second set is intermediate, with wavy lines. The third, and most challenging, set features jagged edges for students to cut. Choose the most appropriate set of feathers for students to cut.

Attach the two headband pieces together with a piece of tape. Join the two headbands horizontally to extend the length of the entire headband.

Keep the headband flipped over to the blank side. Line up all your cut feathers along the top edge of the headband and paste onto the paper. The feathers are double-sided so you won’t have to worry about which side you paste them onto!

Join the edges of the headband together. Tip: First get students to adjust the headband for wearing. When they have found the right fit, tape the edges at that point.

All ready for wearing! If you would like to add some dimension to your hat, curl out the ends of the feathers using a pencil.

CRAFT CHALLENGE:

What else did your students use to decorate their hats? You can use anything available in your craft supply closet or use scrap paper left over from other projects to cut out feathers. Once students have made their hats, sit your class down in a circle and talk about what each student is thankful for from the previous year.

Send us your responses to subscriber@roylco.ca along with photos of your students’ hats! We’d love to hear from you!

Posted on October 9, 2013February 12, 2020 by Raman

Art With Ms. K uses our Fossil Rubbing Plates!

Ms. Katzin of Art with Ms. K used several of our rubbing plates, including R5870 Linear Rubbing Plates and R5817 Animal Skins Rubbing Plates, as texture mats for clay sculptures. She explores a variety of textures and materials and guides her students to make gorgeous clay pendants!

Ms. Katzin published her post, entitled “Kindergarten Fossils,” on January 17, 2013. She used regular clay to bring out the best textures.

Our rubbing plates are great for introducing texture to pre-K art classes. For this activity, Ms. K got her students to press rolls of clay onto the textured rubbing plates. Once they removed the clay, they could shape the sides of the clay rolls into pendants.

To use the texture rubbing plates for making clay sculptures such as bowls, place a sheet of parchment paper below the clay. Roll out the clay into a flat 1/4″ thick slab. Next, choose your favorite textured rubbing plate. This next step will allow you to transfer the texture onto the clay piece.

Simply press the rubbing plates onto the clay slab and lift off. Gently loosen the parchment paper from the textured clay by peeling off the paper from the corners. When you are finished removing the clay, manipulate the textured clay slab into a curved face for a bowl or a cup. For the most adventurous, shape the clay slab into a dynamic sculpture, like an animal!

I love to see what new project Ms. Katzin comes up with–she IS the definition of art teacher in all aspects. Thanks again, Mollie!

Images and original post © Art with Ms. K.

Posted on October 4, 2013February 12, 2020 by Raman

Fall Leaves Mask

Beautiful masks are perfect for reigning in the autumn season! These flashy red, green and gold Masquerade Glasses are easy to make too! Try out our Craft Challenge below and send us photos of your work to get featured in a post.

Find out your craft challenge below!

Age: 4+

Duration: 10-15 minutes

You’ll Need:

• R15335 Spring and Autumn Leaves

• R52023 Masquerade Glasses

• Glue

• Markers or paint

Optional:

• Paintbrushes

• Paint bowls

Masquerade Glasses are versatile for kids of all ages to use! Everyone can decorate their unique Masquerade Glasses anyway they like, but the R15335 Spring and Autumn Leaves add a perfect autumn twist to this craft.

You can use markers instead of paint to color in the R52023 Masquerade Glasses. You won’t have to wait for drying times!

Color in the R52023 Masquerade Glasses completely. Make sure none of the card shows through!

Pop out the R15335 Spring and Autumn Leaves from the backing. The kit includes most fall colors such as yellow, gold, red, orange and green. The leaves are double-sided, featuring a flat color on one side and a pattern on the other side. The patterns are great for adding dimension to your projects!

Select the best-looking leaves and arrange them onto the R52023 Masquerade Glasses. Tip: Put the larger leaves on the corners of the R52023 Masquerade Glasses, and lay the longer leaves along the edges.

This mask is simple to make, but looks amazing!

CRAFT CHALLENGE:

Go outside while wearing the leafy Masquerade Glasses. Stand by a tree and take a picture! It will look like the leaves of the Masquerade Glasses are a part of the tree!

Send us your photos of this project to subscriber@roylco.ca. We will post the photos up in an upcoming post! Thanks for visiting!

Posted on October 2, 2013February 12, 2020 by Raman

Craft Spotlight: Fall Leaves Projects

We’re well into the autumn season, fast approaching winter! Lengthen the season’s stay with some bright and colorful autumn crafts for your classroom. Check out our spotlight below on our R15334 Crafty Leaves, R15335 Spring and Autumn Leaves and R15656 Autumn Paper Bits!

Our autumn craft projects feature golden colors, patterns and natural die-cut leaf shapes for intriguing artwork! Use the leaves to decorate base materials, such as a paper tree trunk. Mix up the arrangements of the leaves on paper to make animal and people figures!

In this video, I show you how to layer and glue together the Crafty Leaves to make a bird in flight! This craft uses simply the Crafty Leaves, glue and a bit of imagination. Find leaves that appear to fan out like feathers on wings. Other leaves can be used to make the body of the bird. A tiny brown leaf was used for the head (but you can use the chestnuts for the bird’s head too!)

Use the gorgeous patterns in our Spring and Autumn Leaves as decorations for picture frames! I took our R52107 Craft Collage Boards and popped out the center so I could use the outside piece as a frame. Peel off the backing to adhere the leaves to the sticky side. I used three colors of the Spring and Autumn Leaves pack, including orange, red and green with the addition of yellow! Arrange the leaves along the sticky side of the frame. You can use both sides of the Spring and Autumn Leaves (one side is printed with flat color while the other side is gussied up with cute patterns!)

Create a lovely autumn tree and talk about the effect of the changing seasons on the tree’s leaves. Demonstrate this with our Autumn Paper Bits! Cut out a tree from brown construction paper. Glue down the leaves around the tree boughs. Make several different trees and paste only green leaves on one tree, orange and red leaves on the second, and leave the last tree blank. Illustrate buds or small twigs on the final tree to show how trees look like in wintertime!

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If you have some of these projects in your classroom craft closet, send us photos of your students’ artwork! We’ll make a feature post and show the blogging world your class’s artistic talent! Email us at subscriber@roylco.ca!

Posted on September 30, 2013February 12, 2020 by Raman

Crafty Leaves Wreath

Just in time for fall! Send students home with gorgeous wreaths for decoration, made from our R15334 Crafty Leaves and a wreath template! A great way to start off the school year. Read more for our weekly craft challenge (send us photos of your projects)!

Age: 5+

Duration: 10 minutes

You’ll Need:

• R15334 Crafty Leaves

• Wreath Template

• Scissors

• Glue

• Pencil

This is a pretty simple craft and can be done in less time than recess! Wreaths are great to make for decoration, or as a gift.

Print out your template onto 8½ x 11″ (21.5 x 28) paper and cut around bold lines. Cut across the dotted line as well.

Fold an 8.5 x 11″ sheet of card paper. Place your template along the fold line. Trace the outline of the template (along the bold lines) onto the card paper and cut out.

Unfold the card paper to reveal your wreath base!

Next, pop out the leaves from the backing. Pick out leaves that you feel will arrange nicely on the wreath.

Curl up the ends of the leaves using the blunt edge of a pair of scissors.

Looking like realistic leaves now!

Arrange the leaves onto the wreath template and glue them down. Tip: Pop out the acorns and chestnuts and place at three or four points around the wreath.

Ready to hang!

CRAFT CHALLENGE:

Go outside and find some natural objects to add to the wreath: acorns or acorn caps, feathers or twigs! Use a hot glue gun to adhere the found objects to the wreath.

Show us your wreath ideas! Send photos of your work to subscriber@roylco.ca for publication in our next post. We’d love to hear from you!

Posted on September 25, 2013February 12, 2020 by Raman

Craft Spotlight: Stand Up Self Portraits!

This week’s Craft Spotlight features our Stand Up Self Portraits! Are you gearing up for Parent-Teacher night? Or are you in need of a project that children can use to introduce themselves to each other? Perfect for “All About Me” crafts, Stand Up Self Portraits encourage children to explore self-expression and self-representation!

Stand Up Self Portraits give students the freedom to experiment with their artwork–use crayons, markers, pencil crayons or a variety of collage materials to decorate the appearance of your portrait!

Our crafters used markers and crayons to decorate their Stand Up Self Portraits. They used the indicators on the Stand Up Self Portrait help students locate where various facial features belong. There are six little pinprick indicators in total.

The two topmost indicators represent the points at which to place the eyes. Draw small circles around the indicators to represent pupils. Enclose the pupils in an almond shape to form the eyes. Add details such as eyelashes and eyebrows.

Use the middle two indicators to draw the nose. Finally, the space between the last two indicators can be used to draw the mouth.

Paste the sides of the Stand Up Self Portrait with yarn, tissue paper or cut construction paper to make the hair!

A great way to introduce students to each other, or prepare the classroom for Parent-Teacher night!

Let us know how your students’ portraits turned out by sending photos to subscriber@roylco.ca! We’d love to see your classroom artwork!

Posted on September 23, 2013February 12, 2020 by Raman

Take a tour through our virtual Art Gallery!!

Welcome to the Little Fingers Big Art gallery wrap-up! Today, we’re going to take a trip down memory lane and revisit some of our favorite crafts of the past year. PLUS: I’ll show you a unique way to display your students’ artwork in the classroom!

I’ve taken our favorite top ten crafts and compiled them below in honor of Little Finger Big Art blog’s first year on the blogosphere! Just click on any of the images below to get linked directly to the craft post.

TIP: To display your students’ artwork, purchase colorful clipboards from any Dollar store! Use one clipboard per student. Hang the clipboards from a wall. If you are unable to drill nails into walls, consider placing adhesive hooks to the walls and hanging the clipboards off those. You can buy adhesive hooks at any department store nearby you!

When children have finished a piece of art, they can clip their art up to their individual clipboard. Send old artwork home with students to add newer artwork to the clipboard art gallery! Children can update their clipboard galleries anytime they finish a 2D illustration.

View our top-ten favorites below!

1. CLASSROOM BIRDS

Colorful collage materials add texture and brightness to the beautiful bird designs. Find templates for the bird designs here: Bird Template 1 and Bird Template 2. Each student can make their own unique bird and add it to the overall classroom display of birds! Find out here!

2. SILLY STENCILS FRIENDLY MONSTERS

Grab a handful of Silly Stencils and arrange them to make your very own friendly monster! Any of the stencils can be used as eyes, noses, mouths, legs, bodies and more. Great for exercising dexterity and building image association skills: find out more here!

3. QUILT MOSAIC BUILDINGS

Arrange beautiful patterned mosaics to make a gorgeous night scene! Use metallic gold and silver gel pens to add detail to the night sky. Learn more about this project here!

4. ALPHABET TRACING SKILLS

Use our Chipboard Letters to learn about uppercase letters. A great tracing activity that helps encourage image retention through repetition. Try it out!

5. ROLLY SCROLLY JAPANESE CALLIGRAPHY ART

Use simple brushstrokes to illustrate branches. Add detail with our Leaf Sponges! See the full tutorial here!

6. JUNK ART ROBOTS

Learn how to put together our Elements Collage pieces to make jivin’ robots! Get inspired to make your own using our instructions. Check it out here!

7. CRAYON SHAVING STAINED GLASS

Use crayon melts to create a beautiful stained glass material for our Stained Glass Frames. A great way to recycle old crayon stubs! View the full tutorial!

8. ORIGAMI FIGURES

Stuck trying to make sense of valley folds or inside reverse folds? Don’t stress another minute! Check out our detailed YouTube videos that show you precisely how to make a bird, frog, butterfly, boat, crane and fish! We use our R15208 Really Big Origami Paper so you can see every step along the way.

9. RUBBING PLATE PLANETS

Our R5841 Optical Illusion Rubbing Plates were used to add interesting effects to planet cutouts. Paired with a cotton swab-brushed background, these planets look stellar! Take a trip to this space-inspired post!

10. PAPER MACHE BOWL

A happy accident this was! I used a bit of glue with our R15335 Spring and Autumn Leaves and draped them over a plastic bowl to make this colorful creation. Learn more about this project here!

Thanks for checking out our gallery! We’d love to see some of your artwork! Send us your ideas or photos of projects inspired by our crafts! Send all emails to subscriber@roylco.ca for a chance to be featured in an upcoming blog post.

Posted on September 18, 2013February 12, 2020 by Raman

Craft Spotlight: Color Diffusing Paper Projects

This week’s Craft Spotlight showcases our lovely Color Diffusing Paper products! Check out an amazing selection of our fabric-like paper in a variety of different projects. The Color Diffusing Paper is perfect for exploring concepts like diffusion and color mixing!

This post will introduce you to our Color Diffusing products through specially-made videos! The videos feature detailed methods of incorporating the Color Diffusing projects into your educational art program!

To start, we have our R2442 Color Diffusing Leaves! These leaves are specially die-cut in the shapes of leaves to encourage thinking outside the box with your nature art.

Color the leaves with all the colors of the rainbow! Use liquid watercolor on the leaves then spritz the paper with warm water to diffuse the colors throughout. Tip: Don’t use more than three colors on a single Color Diffusing Paper project. Mixing more colors will run the risk of turning the project muddy!

Next up is our R2440 Color Diffusing Paper Flowers! The flowers inspire the same level of creativity as our leaves, but can serve as an optional classroom decoration.

Explore new color combinations! Try a different color on each petal of the flower.

Finally, check out our R2445 Color Diffusing Butterflies!

In this video, we used markers to color in our butterflies. When you spray water onto the butterflies, the marker ink will spread throughout the butterfly cutout.

If you’ve used one of our products, send us photos of how you’ve incorporated it into your arts/crafts routine to subscriber@roylco.ca! We’d love to hear from you!

Posted on September 16, 2013February 12, 2020 by Raman