Things You'll Need
Dark-colored card stock
Chalk
Bright-colored tissue paper
White glue
Paintbrush
Hole punch
Ribbon
When teaching children about marine life, hands-on activities help students learn more and have fun doing it. Art and science combine in this tissue paper coral project. The project provides you with an opportunity to teach your youngster about classification and identification of different types of coral, then make bright examples to catch the sun in your windows. Smaller sun catchers become a mobile when they are hung from wire hangers.
Step 1
Provide students with simple outline drawings of different types of coral. Use this time to give a lesson about classification by identifying different types of coral by color, shape and the place where it is found.
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Step 2
Use the outlines as inspiration for drawing coral shapes with chalk on dark-colored card stock. Cut these out, leaving a frame of card stock. Use the cut out as a template for making a second set of shapes. Keep the the pairs together.
Step 3
Tear brightly-colored tissue paper into small pieces and set them aside.
Step 4
Cut a piece of wax paper large enough to cover the entire cut out coral. Mix white glue with enough water to make it thin enough to paint with. Paint this mixture over the wax paper.
Step 5
Apply the tissue paper pieces to the glue on the wax paper. Cover the wax paper completely, then paint a layer of glue over the tissue paper. Allow the glue to dry.
Step 6
Lay one paper frame on a table. Paint some of the glue mixture around the edges and lay the decorated wax paper over it. Apply another layer of glue around the frame edges, on top of the wax paper and adhere the second frame so that the wax paper is sandwiched between the frames. You now have a picture of coral, framed front and back by the card stock.
Step 7
Cut around the construction paper frame, leaving a border of about 1/2- to 1-inch of construction paper. Use a hole punch to make a hole in the top of the stained glass coral and thread a ribbon through the hole.
Tip
Make several stained glass coral pictures and cut different lengths of ribbon. Hang the pictures from different lengths in front of a window to make an eclectic coral display.
You can use a single color tissue paper, different shades of the same color or make a radical-looking coral display by making the craft with different colored tissue paper.
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