We went to a new farm this week and my little guy wanted to make a sheep for a project. This isn't the cutest thing we've ever made, but I liked the sensory and fine motor skill component, so it was OK. This was also really easy.
Materials Needed: white crepe paper, toilet paper, and cotton balls, piece of white cardstock, scissors, Elmer's glue, and a black Sharpie.
Directions:
1. Make an outline of a sheep's body with a black Sharpie, or print one out. I was too lazy to find one online... but maybe should have... since this sheep seems to have a hunchback. Oh well!
2. Cut out the sheep outline (I fixed a lot of my problems when I cut this out and didn't totally follow the lines).
3. Give your child toilet paper, white crepe paper, and cotton balls to rip up. Talk about the different textures while you do this. Each type of paper has a different strength. The crepe paper is a lot harder to pull and requires more finger strength. This is a good activity to build up that strength.
4. Once you have a pile of white paper, take out the glue and cover the sheep's body with glue.
5. Then have your child start sticking the different materials to the sheep's body.
6. Lastly, give your child the black marker to color the sheep's face and hooves.
You can add more details, like eyes, a mouth, etc... this is as far as we got today with my little guy's attention span.
Language Building Activities:
- We took pictures of all the animals we saw on our trip to the farm... so looking at the pictures and talking about all the fun things we saw (including the sheep) and what order we saw them in, was a great way to review new vocabulary and practice sequencing skills.
- Singing the Baa Baa Black Sheep song from Cullen's ABCs is another fun activity to pair with this art project. Singing is our favorite way to practice new words and strengthen comprehension.
- Lastly, I'd recommend going to the library and checking some books out about sheep if your child is interested in them. There are tons here but it has been too long since I've ready any of these to give a good recommendation.
I guess we need to head to the library too!
I think the sheep turned out cute! I love all of the different textures to the sheep!