July 2008-  Summer Fruits- Fruit Stencils

Children LOVE doing stencils, even more so, if they have created them for their own use!  This month we have recycled the plastic lids to cans and the plastic fruit crates you get at the grocery stores. 

Materials Needed:

Clean empty  plastic can lids
Clean plastic fruit containers
Scissors
Markers
Crayons
Masking tape
Paints

Directions:

1.  Cut the fruit containers apart, keeping the flat top and bottom of the container, and discarding the sides.
2.  Draw a fruit design on the top of the lid/fruit container with the marker.
3.  Have an adult use a box cutter and make a beginning slit in the shape, a slit big enough that you can get your scissors into the slit.
4.  Using scissors, cut the fruit shape out of the plastic piece.
5.  If the fruit is cut out of the containers, run tape around the edges of the piece, to avoid sharp edges.
6.  Trace around the cut out shape, or the inside cut out shape onto paper.
7.  Decorate the stencils with crayons, markers or paints.



*  If you do not want to have a box cutter in the classroom, you can use a hole punch (twice) to make a starting point on the shape for the scissors to cut out the shape.  This will leave an elliptical hole on the inside "piece" of fruit.

This craft is great for improving intrensic strength by cutting a "tougher" material  than paper. It also teaches younger children how to keep their pencils on the paper and make a continual line. It is a great bilateral activity, since one hand has to hold down the stencil.

This craft is also great for just creating "shape" stencils, so the child learns the basic shapes, by creating the stencils.