Here is my Eco Project for November….Fall Scarecrow made from Cereal boxes…old jeans….brown bag….
Scarecrow made from Cereal Boxes
Materials Needed: Cereal Box….Old jeans…old shirt or fabric with fall motif….paints-flesh tone and black…brown bag…..Black sharpie….Glue (I’ve used Aleene’s Tacky Glue)…wax paper or other eco friendly paper to work on….Popsicle sticks (2)
I have found one of the biggest challenges in teaching crafting to kids (and some adults) is gluing. They always want to use too much glue!!! For adults it probably comes from our childhood. Schools had a paste that didn’t hold anything so thinking if we used more it would hold better. With today’s glues you do not have to use lots of glue. So for this project I tried an alternate method…. and it worked great!! All gluing on this project was done by applying glue with a cardboard squeegee. Pour small quarter size puddle of glue onto the wax paper. Dip squeegee into glue and apply. It’s best to work a small area at a time.
Apply glue with cardboard squeegee
To get started on your project, trace and cut a pattern from a cereal box. From the cereal box, cut an additional 1-5/8″ circle (head) and a hat… Paint circle (head) flesh tone acrylic paint. Cover hat shape with fabric by using cardboard squeegee, place glue over surface, then place fabric into glue. let dry and trim fabric to hat shape. Paint the shoe area with black acrylic paint. Cut and glue small squares of the fabric for the sleeves and denim for the overalls. Glue painted head onto body. Glue hat into place. Cut the brown bag into fine strips or cut ‘fringe ‘. Glue to the back of head, at the sleeves and lower part of overalls. Glue Popsicle sticks to back of Scarecrow…this will help if you want to place in a plant, or the kids want to use as a puppet.
As many of you know I’m working on a curriculum for teaching Eco crafting and creativity to kids. I’m doing my ‘test projects’ with a day care here in my town. There are 70 kids ages 2 to 5. I think both Eco and Creativity go together. Many of our schools have stopped the much needed art and music programs. That means kids do not have a creative outlet. It’s important as parents, grandparents etc to teach our kids how they can be creative with projects like this. When it’s a Eco Project, it shows kids both recycling and being creative. If you are a teacher, this is to help you with a fun inexpensive idea for your classroom.
Let’s all work to make this happen- Eco Friendly and Creativity at the same time!!!
Just being Eco
Eco-Heidi
