Flap Art

Kids' art taken to the next dimension!

ADDED August 20, 2009

Length: About thirty minutes.

Parental Involvement: Explain the concept. Help with some cutting where necessary.

Kids Should Be Able to: Draw, color, and possibly use tape.

We here at Today is Fun are all about providing the most fun for you and your family at the lowest possible cost. (There are worse passions for people to have, you have to admit.)

We keep suggesting different crayon-marker art activities because they are inherently cheap. Once you've bought some inexpensive crayons, your family can use them for hours and hours!

Today's crayon-marker activity, "flap art," does indeed add another dimension to the fun.

The trick here is simple . . .

Give your child a blank piece of paper and request a scene to be drawn on it. For example, ask your kid to draw a house with a bunch of windows. And just to make this interesting, a different animal should be peering out of each window and possibly waving or holding something interesting.

Once that's done, it's time to make some flaps. Choose one of the windows to start with; you guys will need to cut out a a bit of paper that's approximately the same size as the chosen window. Make the bit of paper just a little big bigger to accommodate the fold you'll need to make.

If your young one needs some help with scissors, please take the cutting responsibilities on yourself!

For the example above, have the kids make something that could cover up the animals in their drawing. They could draw: closed shutters, curtains, part of an exterior wall, old boards, and so forth.

Next, using clear Scotch tape, affix the flap to the drawing, making the window closed. Now you've got an exciting new dimension to the piece of art -- and your child can move the flap around to admire the results. Open the flap, close the flap! Hooray!

Have your child carry on until the art is of masterpiece quality.

And encourage your kids to use some creativity to come up with other "scenes" to depict and cover with flaps. How about a farm yard, a forest, or a fiesta? (Sorry, I just got on a 'f' roll there.)

Have fun flapping it up. And if possible, please send us photos of your kids' masterpieces. We are big conossieurs of the arts!