Five Ways to Start Christmas Now
It would be an understatement to say that Filipinos love Christmas. In fact, it is pretty safe to assume that most homes and offices already have Christmas decorations as early as October, and Christmas party plans already underway.
Use these five arts and crafts projects to jumpstart the Christmas spirit in your class…and to teach recycling as well:
Soda bottle cap Christmas ornament
Designed by Twila Lenoir of allfreecrafts.com, this ornament puts into use discarded plastic bottle caps.
For a similar project, have your students prepare some seven or so bottle caps, colorful or creative-looking paper, felt, cotton balls big enough to fit the bottle caps, a string of shells or big beads, narrow ribbon and a 1.25” colored ribbon, glitter, glue, scissors, pencil and string.
Instructions for your students:
With one bottle cap acting as the center of the ornament, glue the other caps around it to form a flower shape. Use a pencil to trace the bottle cap edges on a colorful paper. Cut out and glue on the back of the caps.
Next, cover the cotton balls with glitter. Use a separate color glitter for the center if desired. Then glue the cotton balls inside each bottle cap. Then, glue a loop of string or narrow ribbon to one cap to serve as the hanger. When that’s finished, glue the 1.25” ribbon around the flower shape. Add a string of little shells or beads for a more colorful effect.
To view a sample work, visit http://www.allfreecrafts.com/christmas/cap-ornament.shtml
Scrips and scraps wreath from old CDs
Put used/worn and pirated CDs to good use - turn them into nice Christmas wreaths!
For this project, have your students gather around seven used CDs, glue sticks and glue gun or Elmer’s glue, scraps from other projects (colorful construction paper, ribbon, felt, beads, plastic leaves or red flowers) and acrylic or oil paint.
Instructions for your students:
As with the soda bottle cap ornament, use one CD as the center of the wreath and glue the other CDs around it (with a little overlap) to create a wreath shape. Paint with red (or any Christmas color desired) the CDs’ outer rims and use gold color (or any Christmas color desired) on the inner rims.
Utilize the scraps from other projects, like putting a bow with poinsettia flowers at the bottom or adding glitter on the letters of “Merry Christmas” spelled out on the different CDs.
To view a sample work, visithttp://www.make-stuff.com/recycling/cd_wreath.html
Cardboard tube angels
If old toilet paper tubes don’t seem to have any use, have your students create angels out of them!
To start the activity, have your students find some glue gun and glue sticks, white glue, red and gold glitter, wire, Japanese paper, small styrofoam ball covered in thin cloth, color pens, popsicle sticks, and some materials that can serve as the angel’s hair (doll hair, raffia, yarn, etc).
Instructions for your students:
Glue the styrofoam ball covered in thin cloth on top of the toilet paper tube, and decorate the entire tube with red and gold glitter using white glue. Use the popsicle sticks for arms on both sides of the tube. Draw a face on the head using color pens or markers, and glue on materials for hair.
For the angel’s wings, loop the wire to form a pair of wings and cover it with Japanese paper. Lastly, attach to the back of the tube.
Very special box
Used as a Christmas tree ornament or as a Christmas token, the “very special box” is another nice recycling project for your students.
For this project, have your students collect a small used box or matchbox, ribbon, discarded wrapping paper, glue. If desired, they can also attach a small magnet so the “very special box” can be displayed on the refrigerator.
Instructions for your students:
First, wrap the small box using the wrapping paper. Tie it with ribbon and design as desired. Then, print out the following poem (from craftbits.com) and attach it to the box:
This is a very special gift
That you can never see
The reason it’s so special is
It’s just for you from me.
Whenever you are lonely
Or are feeling blue
You only have to hold this gift
And know I’m hugging you.
You never can unwrap it
Please leave the ribbon tied
Just hold the box close to your heart
It’s filled with hugs inside.
To view a sample work, visit http://www.craftbits.com/viewProject.do?projectID=453
Snowglobe
Last but not the least, here’s a project to bring a little snow into the classroom. Have your students recycle baby food jars or any kind of jar of any size with an interesting shape, and make a Christmas snowglobe.
For this project, have your students prepare also the following: florist clay, a small figurine (can be waterproof toy dolls or snowman from styrofoam balls), white or silver glitter, glue gun and stick, floral ornaments (leaves or bush, flowers) and ribbon (optional).
Instructions for your students:
After making sure that the jar and lid are completely dry and washed, attach or glue the figurine into the clay. Include additional ornaments to create the “surroundings” or “scenery” inside the jar. Just make sure all the materials are waterproof and won’t dissolve.
Fill the jar with cold water to 1.5 inch from the top and sprinkle half a teaspoon of glitter into the water (if the jar is small, use less). Use a glue gun to put glue inside the lid and attach the figurine in clay. Screw on the lid and put a layer of hot glue around the rim again. Let it dry overnight, lid side up. Decorating the rim of the lid is also optional.
To view a sample work, visit http://crafts.kaboose.com/snglobe.html
Advance Merry Christmas!
Sources:
Dudar, Linda. (n. d.) Tube angel. Retrieved October 22, 2007 from
http://www.make-stuff.com/hollidays/tube_angel.html
n. a. (n. d.) Scrips and Scraps Wreath. Retrieved October 22, 2007 from http://www.make-stuff.com/recycling/cd_wreath.html
n. a. (n. d.) Snowglobe. Retrieved October 22, 2007 from http://crafts.kaboose.com/snglobe.html
Twila, Lenoir. (n. d.) Soda Bottle Cap Ornament. Retrieved October 22, 2007 from http://www.allfreecrafts.com/christmas/cap-ornament.shtml
n. a. (n. d.) Very Special Box. Retrieved October 22, 2007 from http://www.craftbits.com/viewProject.do?projectID=453
(Published 05 November 2007, Smart Schools Program)
