Tactile Name Collage

Supplies Needed:

• Medium-sized paper plates

• Letter Template - can be found here or you can make your own

• Pencil

• Scissors

• School Glue

• Paintbrush

• Various colors of paint

• The amount of colors you need depends on the amount of letters in your name. I used 5 colors because my name has 5 letters

• Various colored items that can be glued onto your letters (using the same colors of paint you chose)

• I used the following items, but you can use whatever you have around the house:

• Pom poms

• Construction paper

• Tissue paper

• Feathers

• Metallic stars

• Silly bands

Before you begin, prepare your table with something like paper towels, newspaper or a tablecloth so you don’t get paint or glue on it. Be sure to ask an adult if you need help cutting.

Step 1: Pick out the letter templates that match each letter of your name. For example, my name is Emily. I will pick out the E, M, I, L, and Y letter templates.

Step 2: Set your paper plate on the table in front of you like you’re going to eat on it. I trimmed the edges off my plate, so it would be easier to trace my letters. You can decide if you want to do that too.

Step 3: Next, pick up the letter template that matches the first letter of your name. Lay that template letter on top of your flat plate. It’s important you hold the letter still while you trace. Using the hand you don’t hold your pencil with, hold down the template so it doesn’t move.

Step 4: Place the tip of your pencil on the paper plate snugly against the edge of the template. Following the edge of the template, trace it. You might have to stop to change the way your opposite hand is holding the template, so you can make it around all the sides. Pick up your letter template, and check to make sure you have a drawing of that same letter on the plate underneath. Do that again for all the letters in your name.

Step 5: Now you’ll have to cut the letters out of the plate. Start cutting on the pencil line you drew on your plate until the whole letter is cut out. Do this for all the letters of your name.

Step 6: Next, we will paint each letter the color we want. Like I said earlier, I am going to make my letter E red, M yellow, I green, L blue, and Y purple. You can do the same if you like that, or different colors that you like better. Let your letter dry all the way. If there are wet spots when you start gluing, your pieces might not stick as well.

Step 7: Now that your letters are dry, we will glue our different textured objects onto each letter. I glued all my flat objects, like pieces of paper and metallic stars, onto my letter first. I did this so that I would still have a flat letter that my bigger pieces will stick to.

Step 8: After that, I glued on my other pieces, like pom poms, feathers, and buttons. You can glue your objects onto the letter however you like!

Step 9: Once you have glued everything on each letter, let it dry completely before using it to decorate. It should take about an hour, but to be safe you might want to wait until the next day if you’re going to hang it somewhere. If you’d like to decorate with this, there are a couple of ways to do it. You could hang it with a string that you loop through a hole in the letter. To do this, you'll just have to make a hole at the top of each letter using a hole puncher. If you don’t want to make a hole in your letter, you can just tape it to your wall using something like painter’s tape on the back of your letter!

Exploring colors and textures is exciting and fun! This craft gives you the chance to feel many different textures, such as soft, hard, smooth, bumpy, and more. It is also a great way to practice spelling your name. When you are done, you can hang your letters on your bedroom door or walls, so everyone will know that your room belongs to you. You can also practice feeling the textures of your sign whenever you walk past. When you do that, try to name which texture you are feeling. I like my tickly yellow feather the best, what about you?

~ Made By: Emily H.