Art and Craft Activities on the Me! Theme.

Check out our Me! Theme Blackline Master

1. Dough Face - Dough recipe
(This recipe makes enough dough for one student. Multiply the quantities by the number of students.)
Ingredients

• 1 cup plain flour
• 1 tblsp cooking oil
• 180 mL water
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1 tblsp cream of tartar

Method
Mix all the ingredients together and knead to remove air bubbles.

2. ‘Me’ tile
This activity may be completed using modelling clay in various colours or using a quantity of the dough recipe — see Craft 4. The completed dough tile must be cooked in an oven at 150 ºC for 11/2 hours.
You will need:
a quantity of dough for each student (or quantities of modelling clay in various colours), paint, plastic knives, water containers, brushes, square cardboard/paper template approximately 14 cm x 14 cm, oven

What to do:

• Instruct students to flatten their ball of dough using hands and fingers until it is about 1 cm thick.
• Students use the template and a plastic knife to cut out a tile shape. Remove and retain the excess dough.
• Using the excess dough, students make a face and add features. Dough pieces will adhere if moistened on the back with water before attaching.
• Students make a border for the tile.
• Cook for 11/2 hours at 150 ºC.
• Once the tile is cooled, the students paint it in bright colours.
• If desired, when the paint has dried the tile may be sprayed with an acrylic gloss to give a shiny finish.

NOTE: The paint may soak into the dough mixture a little and more than one coat may be required. Students may also need to allow each colour to dry before starting a new one.

3. Groovy Hands and Feet

NOTE: Younger students may need some assistance with this activity.

You will need:
fluorescent paper in four different colours, black felt-tipped pen, glue, scissors, A3 white paper.

What to do:

• Distribute four different coloured sheets of fluorescent paper and a sheet of white A3 paper to each student.
• Students trace around a hand and a foot onto each sheet of fluorescent paper. Each student should have four hands and four feet in four different colours. Younger students may find it easier to work with fewer.
• Cut out the hands and feet.
• Students arrange the hands and feet on the white A3 paper so that they overlap to make an interesting pattern.
• Students glue them in place.
• When the glue is dry, students outline each hand and foot with a black felt-tipped pen.
• Instruct students to look at the white spaces left on the page and make line or interesting shape patterns to fill them.
• Mount and display around the classroom.

4. Portrait Grids

You will need:
A4 white paper (2 sheets per student), pencils, black felt-tipped pen, edicol™ dye, paintbrushes, scissors, glue, brightly coloured crayons, A4 black or dark coloured card, photocopier (optional)

What to do:

• For each student, fold two white A4 sheets of paper in half and cut to make four sheets of paper.
• Distribute the paper and direct students to draw a portrait of themselves or a partner onto one sheet. Encourage students to use the whole page and add details.
• Students use a fine black felt-tipped pen to outline the drawing.
• Photocopy this drawing three times (so you have four copies) OR direct students to trace the drawing onto the other three sheets of paper and outline in black felt-tipped pen. Students should have four identical portraits.
• Instruct students to colour one portrait with crayons, leaving the background white. When they have finished, ask them to colour the remaining three portraits so that they look the same as the first one.
• Students then wash each of their four portraits with bright edicol dye. They can use different colours or keep all the portraits the same colour.
• Allow the portraits to dry.
• Once dry, glue and mount the four portraits in a grid pattern, onto black or dark coloured A3 card (Some trimming may be required).

5. ‘Me’ Carving

You will need:
self-hardening clay, carving tools, plastic knives, runny clay mixture for attaching features, brown water colours or dyes, PVA glue

What to do:

• Students roll out a ball of clay until it is about 1.5 cm thick.
• Students cut the clay into an oval or circle for a head shape using the plastic knife. (A template may be used if desired.)
• Students add facial features using extra clay and attach using the runny clay mixture.
• Eye shapes may be cut away to create a mask if desired.
• Pierce a hole near the top of the ‘Me’ carving for hanging.
• Allow the carvings to dry. (This may take two or three days and may also require turning the carvings after a given time to allow the back to dry.) A convex shape may be obtained by drying the carving over a stick placed in the middle.
• Once it is dry, students paint their carving using brown water colours or dyes.
• When the paint is dry, paint with a mixture of PVA glue and water.

NOTE: This activity may be completed using modelling clay. It may also be varied to create Maori or African carvings by adding extra details such as rows of lines or spirals to the face once the features have been added.

Students should be encouraged to exaggerate features such as noses, mouths and tongues.