Create a Picasso-Inspired Santa

What You Need:

• Cardboard (try reusing an old cereal or packing box)
• Construction paper in red, white, black, and peach
• Scissors
• Marker or crayon
• Clear drying, non-toxic glue or glue stick
• Tempera paint (green and red)
• Paintbrush

What You Do:

1. Paint the piece of cardboard with red and green holiday colors. Ask your child to create a pattern such as stripes or squares. Set aside to dry.
2. Help your child to draw the different parts of Santa’s face and hat onto the construction paper. Use peach to make an oval face, white for hair and a beard, red for a triangle hat, and black for circle eyes.
3. Cut the pieces of Santa out.
4. Cut the pieces of paper into smaller shapes. Make new geometric shapes from the larger ones. For example, turn Santa’s triangle hat into a smaller triangle, a square, and a rectangle.
5. Place the paper shapes onto the dried, painted cardboard in a mixed-up pattern.
6. Glue the paper to the cardboard.
7. Set it aside to dry.
8. Display at a holiday party or give to a special friend as a Christmas present.

This is a great project to experiment with—the larger Santa's face is, the more fun it will be to create and find shapes within it!