When creating an art masterpiece the window does not seem an obvious location. However, we love window art as it gives us a new surface for creating large scale art on. The natural light through the window also produces a wonderful stained glass window effect on the art work. When we found out that Playdough And Popsicles were hosting a Kids Craft A-Z series we opted for letter W. Take a look at how we created Window Art inspired by The Rainbow Fish and Elmer The Elephant.

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Over Christmas I managed to eat my body weight in Nestle Quality Street. As a result we have a large collection of coloured cellophane sweet wrappers. Instead of throwing them away we put them to good use to create our Rainbow Fish and Elmer The Elephant masterpieces on contact paper.

Regular readers will know I have a love/hate relationship with contact paper. I love the different ways it can be used but I hate peeling the paper away and attaching it to an object. Luckily as our book inspired characters were small the contact paper didn’t stick to itself and was easy to attach to the window.

The Rainbow Fish Window Art

The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister is about a vain fish with no friends who finds that sharing his silver scales leads to happiness. It was a firm favourite story with my class and we once created a giant window artwork version.

1. Using a black felt tip pen draw the outline of The Rainbow Fish onto the non-sticky side of contact paper. I cheated and printed a template of The Rainbow Fish from Twinkl and placed it underneath the contact paper so I could go over the lines.

2. Peel the back off of the contact paper and position the fish onto the window and secure with cellotape. Ensure that the sticky side is facing you.

3. Fold the coloured cellophane wrappers in half and then half again and out out fish scale shape. This process will give you four fish scales. Place the scales onto the sticky contact paper

4. On black card draw around the Rainbow Fish template and cut it out. Insert your scissors into the center of the Rainbow Fish and cut out the middle, leaving a thick border.

5. Peel off the sellotape from the contact paper and place the fish onto the floor with the sticky side facing you. Position the black card fish on the contact paper and push down. Remember to add the fish eye.

6. Place the fish back on to the window but with the sticky side touching the glass.

7. Use nail varnish remover on cotton wool to remove any black felt tip pen that is still visible.

Elmer The Elephant Window Art

Elmer The Elephant by David McKee is a wonderful story about the patchwork elephant which demonstrates to children that it is ok to be different. To create your own multicoloured elephant simply repeat the same steps as above but use an Elmer The Elephant template.

During step 3 cut out squares from the coloured cellophane instead of fish scales and with step 4 ensure you create an ear and an eye for Elmer.

I did not expect Adam to love this activity just as much as he did. He enjoyed every part of the process – from differentiating between an Elmer square or a Rainbow Fish scale to reaching up high to stick the cellophane onto the contact paper. He talked non-stop throughout the activity telling me about the different colours, shapes and the events in each story.

Little did Adam know that the activity was not only creating wonderful window art pieces but also developing his gross and fine motor skills. The notion of reaching up and down to place the cellophane onto the contact paper was strengthening his arms and shoulders.

Our story inspired window art is proudly displayed on our patio door. Adam loves seeing his artwork prominently displayed and when the sun shines through they brighten up our living room.

Resources:

* The Rainbow Fish book and Elmer The Elephant

* Nestle Quality Street wrappers or coloured sellophane

* Contact paper

* Black felt tip pen, scissors and sellotape

* Black card

* Nail varnish remover

Disclaimer: We received a Premium Subscription from Twinkl to review. All thoughts and opinions are our own.

Remember to take a look at the other Kids Crafts from A-Z as part of the series hosted by Play Dough And Popsicles.

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