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Monster Masks


Mr. D's 2nd grade class created monster masks from cardboard boxes. The kids loved this lesson and were engaged in the project for a full two hours. We had three Art Reps, but you could pull it off with two.





SUPPLIES
  • One cardboard box per student with eyes cut out. Wine bottle boxes were the perfect size for the the kids' heads (not too big). We scored free ones from local wine shops. 
  • Tempera paint for the base coat. There were 3 rows of tables in this particular class, so we used 3 different colors, one for each row (Art Closet) 
  • Small amounts of different colored paints for accents (Art Closet)  
  • 2" brushes (Art Closet) 
  • Collage materials (Art Closet)  
  • Markers (Art Closet)  
  • Random pieces of cardboard, old egg cartons, paper towel rolls, etc.  
  • Masking tape
  • Each child pulled out scissors and glue (Elmer's and glue sticks) from their desks
  • Butcher paper or large pieces of paper to protect desks from paint splatters (from the Teacher Workroom near 1st grade classes)
  • It was helpful to have a pre-made mask on display

    We jumped right into painting the base coat on the boxes first, which took about 15-20 minutes. When the kids were done, we asked them to clean out their brushes in the sink.

     While the paint dried I read a wonderful book to get the kids in a monster mood: Everything I Know About Monsters by Tom Lichtenheld. Warning: there's a little bit of poop/fart humor in this book so you may want to run it by your teacher first. While I read, April and Jamie, the other two Art Reps, finished cleaning up and put out the decorations.



    This is when the kids went wild embellishing their masks. You could probably wrap this up in 30 minutes, but the kids wanted to spend all afternoon decorating. Some needed help taping and gluing their "horns" and other baubles onto the masks, so we wandered the room with masking tape, but that's the extent of the parent intervention. This part of the lesson required very little input from us. 

    After we were all done, everyone donned their masks and hammed it up with each other. It was a fun afternoon!










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