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Accordion-Paper People Materials Pencil Paper Scissors Crayons Directions Fold paper, accordion-fashion, in three-inch strips so that all sections are equal. The number of folds in the paper determines the number of people in the chain. On the top piece of the folded paper, draw a person whose hands extend to touch the folds of the paper on each side. Carefully cut around the person, making sure NOT to cut where the hands meet the folds. Open up the paper and your child will have a chain of several people holding hands. Color them in with crayons, make different expressions on each face, or create a themed group. Kids enjoy creating a replica of their family, so make sure you have enough folds to include whoever your child would like in the family group. Ancient Scroll Materials Two chopsticks Sheet of 8½" x 11" paper Scissors Tape Colored pens Yarn, cord, ribbon, or string Directions Trim the paper so that the chopsticks are two inches longer than the short side of the paper. Tape the chopsticks securely along each short side so that one inch protrudes at either end. Draw a picture and write a message on the paper. Roll up each side around the chopsticks until they meet in the middle. Tie a length of yarn around the scroll to keep it neat Envelopes Envelopes made from gift-wrap or wallpaper add a special touch to holiday cards, invitations, and thank-you notes. Materials Envelope Gift-wrap or wallpaper Pen or pencil Scissors Glue, tape or stickers Directions Let your child choose an envelope the same size as the envelope he'd like to make. Help him carefully pull apart and open the envelope flaps to create a flat pattern for tracing. Lay the pattern on the wrong side of a piece of gift-wrap or wallpaper and have your child trace it. Carefully cut out the traced shape. Fold in the side flaps and glue the bottom flap onto the side flaps. (Look at the original envelope if you're not sure where to fold.) Let your child place a card or letter inside the envelope and seal it with glue, tape, or stickers. Cylinder Sculpture Materials Construction paper Fabric Crayons Buttons and beads Yarn Glue Directions Lay some paper flat on the table. Cover it with decorative ideas using fabric scraps, buttons, and beads. Attach firmly with glue. Fill in spaces with crayons. When paper is dry, roll it up into a cylinder shape. Glue or staple the ends together. Now stand it on one end and your child has made a cylindrical sculpture. Log Houses Materials Brown construction paper Cardboard Pencil Tape Glue Directions Cut the piece of cardboard the size you'd like the floor of your house to be. Cut the paper one inch longer and two inches wider than the house size. Wrap the paper around a pencil and tape it. Slide the log off the pencil and glue it to the cardboard floor, making sure that the end of the log sticks off the cardboard on alternating sides. Make your house as tall as you'd like it. When you're ready to start the roof, cut the logs accordingly. Add a cardboard roof once you have the logs assembled. You can also freeform any structure you'd like with the logs you've created, if you would like something other than a house. Puffy Fish Materials Paper bag used for lunches Rubber band Old newspaper Markers or paints Directions Stuff the bag with crumpled newspaper until it is half full. Wind the rubber band tightly around the middle of the bag. Fan out the open end of the bag to form the fish's tail. Paint or color the body and tail. Using the marker, draw eyes and a mouth. Create a way to attach fins! Several puffy fish can be constructed and hung in a group from the ceiling or a shelf. Create a Crown Materials Paper Scissors Glue Crayons Sparkles and glitter Directions Cut the paper to look like an open crown shape. Let your child decorate it with crayons, glue, sparkles, and glitter. When the decoration is dry, fit it to your child's head and staple or glue the ends together. Play king or queen for a day and have your child wear the crown. Encourage your child to make more crowns for the entire family to be worn at the next family event Fluffy Head Materials Large paper bag White glue Cotton balls White tissue paper Felt pen Directions Place paper bag over child's head and mark where his eyes and armholes are with a felt pen. Remove bag and use scissors to cut out the holes for eyes and arms. Place bag over the back of a chair so that you can walk around it while doing the activity. Dip cotton balls into a saucer of diluted white glue and then stick each one onto the bag. Scrunch pieces of tissue paper into balls or wads and glue them on top for ears, or elsewhere to cover gaps among cotton balls. When the entire bag is covered and the glue has dried, the child can wear it to play To make a square out of any piece of paper, follow this simple procedure: Fold the upper corner of the rectangle over and down until it meets the opposite edge. Cut off the excess from the bottom so that the two bottom edges are even. Cnfold and you have a perfect square. Teaching Origami What's the best way to teach origami to children? Here are some tips for making it a fun experience for you and them: Before making a figure, practice it several times until it comes out right every time. There's no better way to lose a kid's attention than to be looking back and forth at instructions while trying to teach. If possible, have the child sit next to you. If you're working with several children, stand in front of them, make the fold, and then turn around and hold it up so it's facing the same way they are. For best results, make sure you and the child are working on a fairly large, flat surface. Try teaching the process one fold at a time. You do a fold, then watch as the child copies you. You may want to do one all the way through first, then break it down step by step. Starting from a larger square is easier for younger children. Older children can be challenged more by working in increasingly smaller squares. Use newspaper for making a prototype yourself. Children like this, too, because they'll know it's "just for practice." Save a good sheet of paper for the second or third go-round. Consider contacting your local newspaper for some newspaper roll ends. That would give you some really BIG pieces of paper. Newsprint's a great, economical craft material. Whether you're making a simple aircraft or one fit for the upper atmosphere, here are some tips for making better paper airplanes: Use light to medium paper. Heavier paper is appropriate for some types of paper airplanes, but it's hard for a beginner to fold. Accuracy counts. Make folds carefully and crease them with a fingernail or ruler. You want them crisp and precise. The first fold is especially important. It needs to be even or your plane will be off balance. Practice makes perfect. Make the same plane design several times. After you've mastered the basic procedure, try it with different weights of paper and experiment with slight variations. From here, anything's possible. Once you've become a master paper airplane engineer, you may want to branch out into other forms of construction with paper, such as paper scale modeling and kite building. Paper-Bag Helmets Materials: Paper bags art supplies recycled materials Directions: A helmet can be the defining part of a dress-up or role-playing costume. Here's how your child can make quick and imaginative ones from paper bags. To begin, gather up a variety of paper bags, as well as markers, scissors, scraps of cloth and paper, cardboard tubes, and other decorative add-ons. Prepare each bag for your child to decorate by folding the top down three or four times to form a one-inch rim. Then cut out part of the bag to expose some or all of your child's facial features: You can make eye or nose holes, a single "viewing band," or an opening for the entire face. When the cutting is done, have your child use markers to transform it into a particular type of helmet (football, space, motorcycle, whatever). Suggest gluing cardboard tubes on the sides for lights or space thrusters and making similar use of other recycled materials. Your child can even cover the helmet with scraps of fabric to turn it into a bird headdress. If your child uses his or her noggin, there's no limit to the kinds of helmets that will come out of your headgear factory Snowman Alive Materials Paper grocery bag Cotton balls (white) White tissue paper Glue White Styrofoam Directions Place the bag over your child's head and mark where his eyes and arms are located. Remove the bag and cut out holes for eyes and arms. Put the bag over the back of a chair for decorating. Paint the bag white, if desired. Dip cotton balls into a saucer of glue and attach them to the paper bag. Scrunch up small pieces of the tissue paper and do likewise. Dip Styrofoam pieces into glue and add them too. Continue until the bag is totally covered. Mound extra balls of tissue onto the top of the bag to give a rounded look. Wait until the glue dries before the child wears the snowman costume and acts out a snowman story. Streamer Munchkin Materials Large paper bag White glue Ribbons, yarn, colored string Crayons Colored paper Directions Place bag over your child's head and mark where his eyes and armholes are located with crayons. Remove the bag and cut out the holes for eyes and arms. Place the bag over the back of a chair to make decorating easy. Cut ribbons, yarn, paper, ribbons, and string into assorted lengths, not to exceed the child's height. Cover the front, back, and sides. When the glue is dry, place bag over child's head and lead him in front of a mirror so he can see and admire the resu Paper Sculptures You don't have to spend a lot of money to make these cool paper sculptures. All you need are some recycled papers and a vivid imagination. Time frame: One to two hours plus several hours to dry Level: Easy What you need: Newspapers Markers Scissors Stapler White glue Foam dish or paper plate Tissue paper or wrapping paper Dowel Glue gun Drill Wooden plaque Think of a shape you'd like to make for this project. Draw an outline of that shape onto four layers of newspaper and cut it out (through the four layers of paper). You might want to start with a simple fish, or you could copy a coloring book design. Make your design approximately 8 x 10 inches. Staple the edges of the four newspaper cutouts of your design together, leaving a three-inch area unstapled to add stuffing. Crumple newspaper into small balls, and stuff the design to give it dimension. Once the design is stuffed, finish stapling the open edge. Mix about 1⁄4 cup of white glue with 2 tablespoons of water on a foam dish or paper plate. Cut or rip pieces of tissue paper or wrapping paper into small strips. Dip the paper strips into the glue mixture and glue them onto the design. Cover the design with at least two layers of paper strips. Allow it to dry overnight. Cut a small hole in the bottom of the fish and glue the dowel into the hole using a glue gun. Using a drill, make a 1⁄4-inch hole in the middle of the wooden plaque. Glue the end of the dowel into the hole. If desired, you could stain and/or varnish the plaque and dowel. Fortune-Teller Kids will have fun folding paper into this unique shape and telling the fortunes of their friends and family. They can make this simple fortune-teller, or customize it to fit their tastes by adding decals, stamps, or drawings on the flaps to illustrate the fortunes. Time frame: Half hour Level: Easy What you need: Piece of paper Scissors Fine-tipped marker Cut a piece of paper into a nine-inch square. Fold the paper in half diagonally to form a triangle. Fold in half again, forming a smaller triangle. Unfold the paper and fold in each of the ends to meet in the center crease, forming a square (see illustration). Flip the paper over and turn in those edges to meet at the center, forming another smaller square. Lift up the flaps on the other side and place a thumb and finger in each flap to make a moving square form. With a marker, place the name of a color on each of the four outside squares. Place a number on each of the eight inside triangles. Write a fortune under the flap of each inside triangle. Here's how to tell a fortune: Ask a person to pick a color from the four outside flaps. Open and close the paper spelling out the color. For example, open once for R, close for E, and open again for D. Have the person pick a number from inside and open and close again that number of times. Have them pick a number again and open up the triangle with the fortune written inside. Four-Poster Bed Materials Lots of newspaper Masking tape Sheets Fabric scraps String or twine Directions Here's your chance to change your ordinary bed into one fit for a king or queen. You will need to make many strong newspaper tubes. To do this, roll at least six sheets of newspaper tightly starting at one corner. Tape the roll a few times to hold the roll together. Measure the height you would like the canopy to be. Join the newspaper rolls together with tape to make four legs as tall as you need. Tie them to the legs of your bed. If you have no legs on your bed, wrap the twine around the whole base of your bed a few times. Next, measure the distance between the legs for the top of the frame. Make the top frame a little longer than you need so the ends can be folded over and stuffed into the leg tops. Tape them securely. You can paint the newspaper if you want, but be careful not to drip paint on the bed or floor. Drape fabric scraps, sheets, ribbons, or anything you want to dress up the bed. Sweet dreams! Dream Box Help restore the spirits of a recuperating friend by making this special box of dreams. Tickets to a future event or planned trip will give him or her something to look forward to. Present Pointers You'll want to customize the gift certificate for a special event or trip to the tastes of the recipient. Some suggestions for certificates include tickets to the symphony, ballet, or theatre; tickets to a sporting event; tickets to a rock concert; plane tickets to a special location; restaurant reservations; or a planned camping or fishing trip. Time frame: Half to one hour Level: Easy What you need: Silver or gold wrapping paper Small box (a jewelry gift box works well) White glue Glitter (in a contrasting color to the paper) Small piece of tissue paper for liner Confetti Gift certificate or event tickets Piece of poster board or paper cut to the size of the box Fine-tipped marker Cut two pieces of silver or gold paper approximately 11⁄2 times the size of the box. Place the box bottom on top of the wrong side of the paper, and pull the ends up around the box. Fold the ends in like you would when wrapping a present, and glue them to the inside of the box bottom. Allow this to dry. Repeat step one with the box top. Write the word “Dreams …” on the top of the box with white glue. Shake a thick layer of glitter over the word and allow it to dry. Shake off the excess glitter. Place a piece of tissue paper in the bottom of the box. Shake some confetti into the box, and add a certificate or tickets to a future event or trip. Using the marker, write the words “… come true!” on the poster board or paper, and place it on top of the tickets or certificates