The weather is starting to get cooler outside! Sometimes to keep their hands warm, people will put on a cozy pair of mittens! With this activity, you’ll get to make a tissue paper collage shaped just like a pair of mittens! This activity is great for preschoolers and school age children as they learn to create art by using materials that are not paint or crayons. This activity can also be fun for adolescents as they can express their creativity and be able to add different mediums such as feathers, glitter, or sequins as they please. For younger children, they will practice their fine motor skills by handling small pieces of tissue paper and tracing their own hand. Adolescents can develop their abstract thinking by intentionally deciding how to rearrange their tissue paper and other materials to make it look like the ideal pair of mittens they have in mind. Their artwork can act as a beautiful decoration or fridge art, and the child will be delighted to see their masterpiece on display!
Materials:
Colored Tissue Paper (any colors)
1piece of Construction Paper (any color)
Scissors
School Glue/Glue Stick
Pencil
Activity Steps:
Step 1: Tracing your hand
First, set up your materials and create a clean working space. Then, set your construction paper in front of you and grab your pencil. Place your hand, with your fingers together, on the paper and trace it. You will want to make sure your fingers are placed together so that your tracing will resemble a mitten! Once you have traced one hand, trace the other one, so you will have a pair of mittens!
Step 2: Cutting your tissue paper
Note: Younger children may need help with this step
Now, take a sheet of tissue paper and fold it long ways (hot dog style). Then, fold this smaller piece and fold it short ways (hamburger style). Your tissue paper should now look like a square. Repeat this again to get an even smaller square.
Next, take your scissors and cut down the middle of the square to get two equal sets of strips. Cut each strip once more down the middle. Repeat this again to get even smaller pieces of tissue paper. You should now have a lot of small pieces of tissue paper, but if you would like more simply keep cutting!
Note: I only used two colors, but you can use however many colors of tissue paper that you want!
Step 3: Gluing down your pieces of tissue paper
Next, take your school glue and make dots all over the surface of your mitten cutout. You can also take your glue stick and spread it across your mitten cutout. Then, place a piece of tissue paper on each dot of glue. Repeat this until your mitten cutout is covered in tissue paper. After you are done, let the glue dry for 10 minutes so that they tissue paper will stay in place!
For older children and adolescents: Get creative with this step! Try and find items such as buttons, feathers, or sequins around the house that you could add to your mittens!
Step 4: Cutting out your mittens
Once the glue is done drying, take your scissors and cut out your mittens. The easiest way to do this is to cut along the pencil line that you made when you traced your hand in step 1.
Now you can hang your mittens as you decorate the house for winter!