Activity:
Onion Dome
Few architectural features are as recognizable as Russian onion domes. Help your kid recreate the striking beauty of these roof-top marvels with this horizon-expanding art project.
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What You Need:
- Paper
- Pencil
- Yellow onion (optional)
- Brightly colored paints, including gold
- Paintbrush
- White or tan card stock (or lightweight cardboard from the recycling bin)
- Scissors
- Glue
- Black construction paper
What You Do:
- If your child has never seen onion domes in person, do a web image search. Point out the onion shape as well as the saturated colors. If you have an onion on hand, show it to your child so she can appreciate the visual similiarities between an actual union and the shapely domes.
- On the paper, draw several onion domes. She can make one larger than the others, or they can all be the same size. Let her take the lead.
- Encourage her to paint the domes using gold and a variety of jewel tones. Let them dry.
- Now it's time to start cutting out the towers. Because the towers are often a neutral color, you can use lightweight cardboard from the recycling bin. White, ivory or tan are all good colors.
- Cut out the towers making sure to vary their heights. If your child made one larger onion dome, this should go on the tallest tower.
- Have your kid figure out where she wants to position the towers on the page. She can overlap some of the towers to make it look like some are closer to the viewer than others. The tallest tower should be in the back and will be glued directly onto the black paper.
- Before your child glues her tallest tower and its dome in place, make sure the tower and dome fit together on the paper. If they don't,have her trim the tower so that it's shorter. Now she should glue the tower and dome in place.
Hang up the finished product so everyone can admire the dramatic cupolas your young artist has created!
