Summer art class: little huts

I'm so glad I have creative friends! It helps when those creative friends are artists who have also taught kid's classes. My friend (and fellow MamaCita member) Diana Trout gave me the idea for this little hut project. It was perfect. Just the right amount of time, easily done with markers or paints or crayons or colored pencils…anything, really! We used markers and wallpaper scraps from sample books (for the roof). I got the books last year by calling a wallpaper store and asking if they had any books they were throwing away. They were happy to give me a bunch.

Before the class started, I cut two pieces of white paper for each child. One measured 5.5" x 17" and the other was 8" x 8". I used cardstock so the huts would be sturdy. I had the wallpaper books out so the girls could choose a sheet for their hut's roof.

We read the book My Painted House, My Friendly Chicken and Me, by Maya Angelou. I pointed out the patterns on the houses and we also looked around my house for patterns. There were lots! They even pointed some out that I hadn't noticed. There were patterns on the pillows, in the artwork on the walls, in the rug, and the curtains. They noticed subtle patterns, like the wood grain on the coffee table.

The first thing they did after reading was to take their long piece of paper and draw patterns on it with pencil. I find that sometimes drawing with pencil makes them slow down and really think about what they're doing. They each had a piece of scrap paper to practice patterns before drawing on their good paper. After the patterns were drawn they colored them in with markers. There were very detailed patterns and some very simple patterns. After the patterns were drawn and colored, the sheets were stapled together to make a circle.

When they finished their patterns, they worked on the 8" x 8" paper, which would be the ground for their hut. They could decorate these any way they wished. The third step was to choose a wallpaper sheet that would be used for the hut's roof, which they traced a large circle onto and then cut out. A long cut was made in the circle so that it could be stapled into a sort of cone shape.

We put them all together with tape - taped the hut to the ground, and the roof to the hut. Some girls chose to leave the roof loose so they could make furniture for the inside and play with the hut.