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Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Your Emotions are Written All Over Your Face [craft]


When I saw The Art Annex’s Silly Faces activity, I knew it was a future art project for my son. I pinned it until the time was right. Since my diagnosis with breast cancer, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about its impact on my kids, particularly my almost-7-year-old son.

The time was right to do this project. It could open up a conversation about emotions -  how he’s feeling and how I am, too. Plus, it was just good old-fashioned fun. Before we got our art on, we read a wonderful book about feelings. I’d recommend it for kids of all ages – toddler on up.


Now I gave my son some fun scrapbooking papers to choose from for a background, a cut-out of a face, and some chipboard I’d cut from an empty cereal box.

Download a PDF of this face template here.

First, he drew hair on his head. I made one too, but used brown paper to replicate my bob hairstyle.

Now, he glued the patterned paper onto the chipboard and then glued the face in the center of it, using a glue stick.


I encourage you to visit Doris’ blog; she recommends using a hand drill and large plastic needles with an eye. Since I don’t have either, we made do without, but I’m sure these tools would have made the project easier.

Instead we used my husband’s cordless drill to poke holes in the face template’s open circles (6 for each face: 2 for each eye and 2 for the mouth).


When this was done, we clipped pieces of yarn and folded them in half. Then to make it easier to thread the yarn through the holes, I used some scotch tape at the ends (like the end of a shoestring). 




Once through the holes, I tied knots in the back, making sure to leave slack so the yarn eyebrows and mouth could be manipulated into a variety of expressions.




Lastly, we glued on some big googly eyes. The next day when the eyes were dry, we both played with our faces, going through a whole gamut of feelings. It was bonding at its best.


NOTE: If you’re not following Doris’ art blog, start now. There are SO many wonderful ideas on The Art Annex!!

9 comments:

  1. INSPRING post! Thanks for sharing! Have you thought having him make these faces as a way to journal/log his feelings through your fight against cancer? Perhaps, once a month or twice a month? SMILES!!! (please check out my Blog if you have not done so already)

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  2. These are adorable, absolutely adorable! And what a great tool for kids that have a hard time vocalizing their feelings! I may make a couple for my mom or her friends who are psychologists and do a craft with my upcoming students with this too! Thanks for sharing!

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  3. This is awesome!!! I must make one! I work with my students on identifying facial expressions/feelings all the time and this would be perfect, thanks so much for sharing!
    Amy
    The Resource(ful) Room

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  4. What a fun idea =-)

    I just wanted to let you know that I included your fabulous blog in my Homeschooling 101 post as a great resource for Elementary Age Ideas & printables! Thanks for sharing all your ideas with all of us! http://www.livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com/2012/07/homeschooling-101.html

    Beth =-)

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  5. OMG-So I totally missed you were diagnosed with cancer Holy cow...it makes my issues lately seem so small. You have been my biggest blog supporter and I adore you & your posts. Will be praying for you!

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  6. Add one more face expression.. how can we look when we cry:) No doubt its great work!

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  7. Wow! What a great way to explore emotions!!

    Thank you for sharing on Kids Get Crafty!

    Maggy

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  8. Great craft!
    Thanks for sharing with my Super Link Party! :-)

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  9. This is such an interesting idea to display changing emotions. Thanks for sharing!

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