Today’s crafting project wasn’t just fun it was a lesson in following directions, fine motor skills, and creativity! To make newspaper koalas you’ll need the following:
- newspaper
- safety scissors
- glue
- paint brush
- paper plate (the cheaper/more flimsy the better)
- construction paper (gray and white suit best- but you can get creative on this too)
- black crayon
I started by having MJ review the correct way to hold scissors and allowed her to cut out a few strips of newspaper to use for our activity. Separately, I prepared a good pile of newspaper strips. You’ll need enough to cover the paper plate. I gave her a small cup of glue and a paint brush. She began by “painting” the glue on to the back of each newspaper strip and then filling the whole plate with newspaper strips until it was covered. Next, I cut out two small white circles for eyes and she added the black. I also cut out the ear shapes for her to assemble. We attached the ears to the back of the plate with scotch tape.
To finish the project off I had her go over the entire plate with a light brushing of glue- it was great fine motor practice (using glue properly, staying on plate/newspaper) and it also helped hold the project together too once it dried.
I included Sadie on this activity too. Of course, being a newly minted 2 year old her expectations were significantly different. The same materials were available to her but she had a more open ended outcome. She mainly watched what MJ did and tried to mimic. A paintbrush with glue was intriguing to her and on more than one occasion I had to remind her not to eat the glue. …I guess there’s always that one in the bunch. 🙂 She did a great job though and I think she had fun being included. As they worked we talked about koalas and when they were done we read our story again which Sadie, especially, enjoyed!
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