Sun Catchers

Home made sun catchers were a big hit for us today.  As there is no school this week for children in our area I have the task of keeping older one busy.  I am not use to this as most of the children in my care have always been a little younger.  Sure I have a 6 year old of my own, but still when you have two boys that age and two 8 year old girls, I was scared to death for this week.  I enjoy children, but have never had to entertain that many older ones.  So back to the wonderful world of the Internet I went and found some fun activities for them to do.

Today we made sun catchers as mentioned above, the kids wanted to go outside this morning, but lets face it..... when it is -29 Celsius out there, I knew it wouldn't last long.  It would just be to cold for them.  Even with the sun shinning away and making it look so nice out.  So instead we started talking about how the sun plays little "tricks" on us.  Just because it is bright and shiny out there doesn't mean its warm (at least not in the winter, in the middle of Saskatchewan).  Once I got the kids on the topic of the sun shinning in my dinning room through the windows, that's when I got the idea to make the sun catchers.

I have the pleasure of owning a small laminating machine (of course it was bought from Walmart!), so this was one craft that I could use it for, not just to laminate already done pictures and crafts, like have have always done with it before.

Here's what we did:

First those that were old enough, I had them cut out shapes of their choice from construction paper.  The younger ones, I did it.

We then cut the inside of their shapes out so we only had an out line of it and the centers were totally open. 
I then had them rip tissue paper into small pieces, again the colour of their choice.  

We then placed the outline of our shapes on the laminating paper and the tissue paper on the inside of the shape.

Once they were finished we put them into the laminating machine so the two plastic sheets would melt together.  Lets just say most of the children thought this was the greatest thing, watching the sheets come out the bottom of the machine, looking totally brighter and even different then they did when we first put them in.
It was great fun and kept them busy for a while, after all was done we punched holes in them and tied some ribbon around it to make a string to hang them in front of the window.


Now if you don't have a laminating machine or don't want to buy one cause you don't think you will use it enough, you could always use contact paper.  You can find it at any art or office supply store, some stores even carry it in different colors!  This paper is like tape almost, just in a sheet of 8"X11" usually, you peel the backing off of it to expose the sticky surface.  Place you outline and tissue paper on it then take another sheet and place on top of all that.  This way is shinny on both sides and nothing falls out or off.