Collaborative Paper Quilts

Many teachers are busily preparing for the new school year. Here's a great art project for those first days of school when group art activities help children feel comfortable with each other and facilitate cooperative play. Not only is this activity good for social emotional development, it also introduces shape and pattern recogntion, which are both important for math and literacy development.

This simple but creative Collaborative Paper Quilt is made of inexpensive materials that most teachers have on hand: paper, yarn and crayons.

Simply follow these easy steps:
1) Create a basic square quilt design using a ruler and compass. You can copy the design shown here or invent your own simple, geometric design.
2) Xerox a copy of your design for each student.
3) Provide crayons or markers for each child to color their design. Talk about shapes and pattern recognition as you introduce the activity .
4) Glue finished designs onto Colored Butcher Paper.
5) Glue yarn between the paper quilt squares to simulate a traditional hand sewn quilt.

The Paper Quilt pictured here is from the Children's Art Display at this year's So Cal Kinder Conference. Does it make you smile? It certainly caught my eye. I hope it provides another idea to enhance your back to school classroom.