12 Days of Holiday Ideas for the Classroom - #7

On the 7th Day of Holiday Ideas for the Classroom, Mrs. Rye got ready to make beautiful ornaments with her students!  Some of you may remember this project from last year, but I wasn't able to share it until December 18 which would be too late if you wanted to give it a try with your own class.  I'm sharing it much earlier this year, so you have plenty of time to get all the materials you need rounded up.  Here are a few of the ornaments my students made last year.

The materials you will need for this project are:   styrofoam balls, 3/4 or 1 inch sequin pins, (The best deal I found was on Etsy.)  lots of 10mm sequins in different colors (each ornament needs about 300 sequins), seed beads (300 per ornament), ribbon, corsage pins (2 per student), a few beads for each student, and some rubber bands.  I organized all of my materials in this handy bin.  That way the kids could just come up and get out what they needed.  

I gave each of my students a plate to keep their sequins, seed beads, and pins on.  Whenever they finished their work, they could just go grab their plate and do some more work on their ornament.

I gave my students last year two options for their design.  They could do horizontal stripes or divide the ornament into four sections.  If you are doing horizontal stripes you want to start by placing the rubber band around the center of the ornament like this...

If you want to do four sections, then put one rubber band around the ornament vertically dividing the ornament in half and another rubber band dividing it in half again like this...

The rubber band helps you to make your first rows of sequins in straight lines.  When the rubber band is in place, you are ready to begin.  Take a sequin pin and put a seed bead on it.  Then put on a sequin and stick it into the styrofoam next to the rubber band.  The next sequin should slightly overlap the previous one so none of the white from the styrofoam shows between the sequins.  Once you get the first row on, the rubber bands can be removed, and you just keep on going from there!

The styrofoam balls we used last year already had a hanger in place, but this year we have to add our own.  My grade mate showed me how she creates a hanger with the corsage pins, the ribbon, and beads.  I will share some instructions and pictures of how to do that once we have gotten started.  You add that after the students finish putting on their sequins, so you have time to check back on that later.  I'll be starting this project with my students later this week, and I will definitely share some pictures of their beautiful creations!

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