Serving Art Educators
and Students Since 1994
Handmade Paper Pumpkins
Submitted by: Joanna Davis-Lanum, Garden Elementary School Venice, Florida
Level: Pre-K through Second grade (Can be modified for intermediate grades!)
Time: 1 x 55-minute class
Materials:
Large piece of scrap paper (as a placemat)
Lots of paper towels or sponges (if you use sponges, use buckets, too)
Blender
Pre-mixed paper pulp (orange, green, purple, brown) in covered vats
Harvest Wheat Paste
Prep:
During the Halloween season I usually make a large vat of pre-made orange, purple, green, and brown paper pulp. I always use a blender and scrap paper to demo the pulp to each class, so it kind of replenishes itself as classes go on!
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Pulp recipe:
For orange: use ¼ cup wheat paste (to stiffen the paper), lots of yellow paper and a bit of red.
For green: use ¼ cup wheat paste (to stiffen the paper), lots of yellow and a bit of blue.
For purple: use ¼ cup wheat paste, lots of blue and a bit of red
For brown: ¼ cup wheat paste, mix all the pulp together.
Motivation:
This lesson is a great fall lesson, focusing on the importance of recycling paper, color mixing, and learning secondary colors!
Objectives:
1.1.1 create works that are personally meaningful and draw from observation
1.1.9 use forming techniques with paper
1.1.8 understand using primary colors to make secondary colors
1.2.3 follow clean-up procedures with others
1.3.4 identify and apply geometric shapes
5.1.3 use a contemporary or environmental theme to create a work of art
Participate in a sequential lesson.
Create a jack-o-lantern (or pumpkin) handmade piece of paper
Procedure:
Introduce the theory of recycling. Let students know how much scrap paper comes out of the art room and how we are going to use our trash to make a new piece of artwork.
Students have been learning about color-mixing. I tell my students that yellow paint + red paint = orange paint. Yellow frosting + red frosting = orange frosting. Yellow paper + red paper = orange paper. I put some wheat paste (about ¼ cup), water, lots of yellow paper and some red paper in the blender. I see if students can hypothesize about what color it is going to turn. (of course they GET it!!!!)
Students use a large folded sheet of porous paper. I have used donated brown paper bags from a grocery store. These work well too. Give each student a scoop of about ½ cup of orange paper pulp. Using sponges or paper towels, demonstrate how to extract all of the water out of the pulp, keeping the pulp in a circle or oval. Tell students that they need to get all the "shininess" out of the paper. The shine is from water and that is BAD!
Demo to students how blue and red make purple. Use blue and red paper in the blender and make some purple pulp. Give each student a small amount of pulp to make the eyes, nose, and mouth of their jack-o-lantern. Again, show students how to extract the water out of the pulp.
Demo to students how yellow and blue make green. Use yellow and blue paper in the blender and make some green pulp. Give each student a small amount of pulp to make a leaf. Students must extract water from the leaf.
Demo to students how all the colors mixed together make brown. Use a handful of each of the pulp(s) in the blender to mix them. Use some of this brown pulp to make a stem. Extract water from the stem.
Have students write their names on the large piece of scrap paper. Handmade paper should wait until the next art day to dry. Because of the wheat paste, the handmade paper should be stiff…and should peel right off of the scrap paper.
I have also had students use these in mixed-media paintings or drawings…houses with their pumpkin sitting on the porch, or a colored-pencil pumpkin patch with their pumpkin front and center. Most of the time I just let the kids take their handmade paper pumpkins home with them. They are just as happy with that!
Assessment:
I use a verbal assessment for this project. I ask the student(s) to tell me one thing they learned or liked about the project. We go around the classroom one-by-one.
Extensions:
I have used this project to be a "part" of a larger project, drawing a house and gluing the pumpkin on the front step. We have also used the pumpkin to be the focal point of a drawn pumpkin patch.
I have also done holiday trees, with secondary colors. I used green for a triangle tree, orange ornaments and stars, purple garland, and a brown stem. It really just depends on what time of year you want to do!
Lastly, I have had students that do not celebrate Halloween. If this is the case, use the purple to create vertical lines (like on a pumpkin) instead of a face. This way, students can still participate and have a nice handmade pumpkin in the end.
A way to integrate the lesson into language arts is to read several pumpkin or jack-o-lantern books to the kids. Some possibilities include A Very Scary Jack-O-Lantern
Connections:
Science (recycling)
Mathematics (shape)
If you have any questions about this project, please do not hesitate to email me:
