The ancient Greeks associated the laurel wreath crown with victory, and often bestowed it upon the winners of athletic and Olympic competitions. Give your child a sense of victory by helping her create this artful headdress.
The paper laurel crown activity encourages early math skills such as shape recognition and understanding the part to whole relationship. This project can also be used to introduce mythology—the Greek Apollo wore a laurel wreath crown—and nature concepts.
What You Need:
- Green construction paper in a variety of shades
- Green tissue paper
- Green metallic paper
- Glue
- Tape
- Scissors
What You Do:
- Cut a thin, straight strip of construction paper. Make the strip about two to three inches wide. The length should be long enough to wrap around your child’s head. If your paper is too short, cut strips from two pieces and tape them together.
- Help your child cut out leaf-like shapes from the construction paper, tissue paper, and metallic paper.
- Ask your child to glue the paper leaves to the construction paper strip.
- Set the paper aside until it is completely dry.
- Once dry, fit the crown to your child’s head. Tape the ends together, making sure that the sticky side is not exposed. This will help to avoid pulling hair.
- Place the crown on your child’s head!
Extensions:
Extend this art activity into dramatic play with an imaginative mythological tale. Read stories about Apollo and the other Greek gods and goddesses, and have your child act them out using her new crown as a costume.
Another fun extension is to have a mini-Olympiad. Ask your child to make a few different paper laurel crowns and hand them out to the victors!
By Erica Loop
Erica Loop has a MS in Applied Developmental Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh's School of Education. She has many years of teaching experience working in early childhood education, and as an arts educator at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh.
Add your own comment