St. Patrick's Day Craft Article From March 2009 Issue of Parent and Grandparent Planner
Recycled Rainbows
Written By Angela Antonelli
Thinking of a trip to the craft store? Think twice. Your recycling bin is an untapped treasure trove of art materials. This project presents many opportunities to discuss color, primary/secondary colors and hues, object identification, counting, sorting (same/different), rainbows, and recycling/waste.
Supplies:
Front side of a cereal box
Pencil
Junk mail and/or used magazines
Glue
Scissors (optional)
Instructions:
- use a pencil to draw a rainbow on a piece of cardboard or a plain piece of paper
- gather together junk mail and unused magazines, and start searching for colors. Tear or cut pieces of paper from every color of the rainbow.
- As you search for colors, sort them into piles.
- Have your child glue the colored scraps onto each arc, according to color (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple)
This project can be completed all at once, or left out and worked on periodically, as you would with a puzzle.
You can also extend this activity by working on one color at a time, and then progressing to another color when you resume the project.
Ways to adapt this project:
- You can add other materials in addition to scrap paper. Buttons, pom poms, fabric scraps, etc. can be fun additions to search for around the house. Make sure to keep an eye out for potential choking hazards if you’re working with young children.
- Very young children can help tear paper from magazines while you help them to identify colors.
- Preschool age children enjoy practicing using scissors, and may prefer to cut scraps rather than tearing them.
- School age children may enjoy cutting their scrap pieces into specific shapes, and piecing them together with a more specific placement, resulting in a mosaic look. You can also challenge children to go one level further, and place each color according to hue (yellowish green, light green, green, dark green, bluish-green, etc.)
- You can also challenge children to search for specific colors by giving them “riddles” to solve. For example, “find the color that is made by mixing blue and yellow,” “find things that are the same color as a strawberry,” and so forth.
Note: Don’t be concerned if toddlers and young preschoolers do not place the colors in order. Allow them to focus more on the experiences of identifying, tearing, cutting, and gluing. The process of creating is more important than the end result of the project.