Homeschool Group Projects Ta-Da

I get inspiration from so many blogs and websites. I love that through the internet we are able to share our love of many other hobbies and activities. Here are a few of the projects we completed in the papercrafting class I did for the kindergarten and first graders in our homeschool group this fall semester.

We made contact paper stained glass windows. I used this tutorial as a guide to get me started. I was going to give the kids shapes to fill in like she does in the tutorial but I decided I didn't want to cut out 20 shapes. So I just let them do their own thing (Nate's is on the right in the pix, his was supposed to be Daffy Duck). Some of them were pretty clear what the kids were trying to make and others... well lets say they were more "modern" art. ;-)


Here is Nate with our paper pumpkin ta-da. He was so proud. ;-) I got the idea from Craftaholics Anonymous. She posted a tutorial HERE. It worked pretty well... but since I was using the hot glue I had to do most of it and the kids could only help so much... I am learning as I go with this class. By the time the semester is over I'll have finally gotten the hang of it. ;-)I was inspired by this tutorial on My Blessed Life and modified it for the kids. We let them use a lot of stickers and they had a good time with this one.

For awhile now I have been seeing tutorials for silhouette projects on a several blogs. This one and this one are the ones that I referenced when I planned this silhouette project for the class. I combined the silhouette idea with paper covered notebooks using this tutorial. So the first day of classes I took photos of the kids and got prints made. I cut their silhouettes out then taped them face down on a large sheet of cardboard and spray painted them black. I pre-cut the decorative paper before the class time. Once in class we had the kids do all the gluing. I found pre-cut paper frames at Target (in the school supply clearance) and the kids glued those to the front and pasted their silhouette inside the frame. I was pretty proud. ;-)

There was a lot of trial and error for me with this class. I've not taught in a setting like this before and it was a learning experience for me. Figuring out what the kids were capable of doing in the amount of time we had was a challenge. I almost feel like I was just getting the hang of things as the semester was ending. But the leadership must have liked what I did with the class because they asked me to teach it again next semester for the second graders. I am a little more confident going into this next semester now that I've already done most of the pre-planning and have already done it once. Hopefully things will go smoothly in the spring too!