Pencil Shaving Art

What You Need:

• Handful of colorful or patterned pencils, preferably new and unsharpened
• Craft glue
• Construction paper or card stock
• Colored pencils or markers

What You Do:

1. Ask your child to sharpen the pencils over a paper plate or paper towel to collect all of the shavings. This is the fun part; most kids love this hands-on, slightly messy activity.
2. Have her sit down at a table and inspect her pencil shavings to see what they remind her of—a lion’s mane, a hermit crab, or a flower, perhaps?
3. Encourage her to design her 3-D creation, gently placing the shavings onto a piece of paper. Remind her not to press down too hard on each piece because they are rather delicate and may break apart easily.
4. Once she is pleased with the placement of the shavings, she is ready to glue them onto the paper. Have her dab small spots of craft glue on the back of each shaving. She should gently press down on each for several seconds, until the glue begins to set.
5. After all the shavings are glued in place, your child can embellish the image by outlining it with colored pencils or markers.

Ta-da! This nifty project is complete!