Paper Earth Suncatcher

(Art & Craft)

This art and craft is more a cooperation project of both parent and child instead of a solely project for the child alone. We read a picture book about Earth, the planet we live in. How beautiful it is with “blue ocean,” “white clouds,” and “green trees” (all these words are spoken by 2.5 years Y already). Then I invited her to make Earth suncatcher.

Materials:

-a sheet of paper

-circle pattern (we used a glass jar lid)

-blue paint

-green paint

-sponge

-scissors

-glue

-a tray

-hole punch

-a ribbon or rope

-a rack

Instruction:

-draw a same size circle on the paper

-cut circles out of sheets paper

-present the materials to your toddler: tray, sponge, circle papers and paints

-ask your toddler to paint the circle papers and then let it dry on a rack

-once it’s dry, keep under a thick book for a few hours

-once flattened, stack 1 painted paper faced down, 1 painted paper faced up and glue the two together

-Punch a hole and thread some ribbon through

-Hang up and enjoy the Earth

It might be easier if we use card stock than a paper, but we have none at the moment so paper was our go to. We chose to cut lots of circle because the more seems merrier and to be honest no one knows how many Earth can survive the painting-drying.

I gave Y one circled paper at a time to paint on to keep her focused to the task. She was so thrilled to let both green and blue paints overflown from their container by dipping the sponge in and around its edges. She loved to stamp the sponge on the circle and she made sure both sides are covered with green and blue paints. She insisted that both sides should be done, otherwise she’d said “no,” which means that it’s not yet done. After a while most of the paint was already on the tray instead of in the paint container. She scraped the paint directly using circled paper on the painted tray and pushed it down gently. Next, she carefully peeled the paper off to reveal the Earth print.

It means, not only she painted using sponge, she also made a print of Earth without us planning.

I put only the first painted circled papers on the rack, she put the rest herself once she was done painting each of them. We let them to dry overnight.

Once it was dried and flattened, the painted circled paper has rack marking on one side and relatively intact Earth on the other side. Add glue to paste together 2 painted circles with rack marking on it. Y enjoyed to glue and paste the circle, so she definitely can have this part.

As for punching a hole, I hold the glue circle, offered her its edges, gave direction while she was holding the hole puncher and asked her to “push down.” It was a new thing and pushing is always so much fun for her. Young children at this age loves to pick their choices.

We had only a black ribbon and brown craft rope at home, she chose for rope, so rope it was. She managed to push and pull the rope through the hole, but asked for my help to tied and hang them together.

I was about to hang it by window on our balcony, but she wanted it somewhere closer to her. I offered to hang it on her favorite step ladder, she said “Yes.” And so it was, and still is her muse to admire and play with.

Happy Earth day!

#earth #earthday #toddler