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For some reason Monster crafts are a huge hit with my youngest Primary school children. So, I pulled out this fail safe, always-a-hit Paper Monster Mural art project.
Typically this art project works very well with children around 4 -7 year olds. This is a great project for the whole class to collaboratively work together in creating something for the classroom or hallway.
It’s a perfect craft for the beginning or end of term, and you could even choose a holiday theme like Christmas or Halloween. I usually like to do this monster craft leading up to Halloween.
Kids can make this at home or at school, and is something they will happily work on and be engaged with for quite some time and the results are simply adorable.
Paper Monster Mural Art Project For Young Kids
Now, I’m gonna be completely transparent here, in this particular class project photographed here, I gave no emphasis on neatness or anything.
No demo on ‘how to colour vs scribble’. I just let them loose.
Sometimes, if time permits, I’ll pre-cut some paper into trees or roads or something to give a bit of a background, or I might even draw one thing on just to demonstrate the standards.
But this day, I wanted to have nothing to do with it! I wanted it to be completely student made. And ya know, they were so so proud in the end.
Art Supplies:
- Roll-a-Monster Drawing Activity
- Long roll of newsprint paper (or Large A3 paper taped together)
- Colour construction paper
- Crafty bits and bobs like pom poms, googley eyes, pipe cleaners or whatever you have handy
- Scissors
- Glue sticks
- Markers
- Crayons
- Paint (Optional)
- Blue tack
What To Do:
1. Talk about Monsters
First we discuss aliens and monsters. I’ll start by either watching funny bloopers clips of Monsters Inc or reading the book Where The Wild Things Are.
I love hearing their ideas on why children are typically scared of Monsters, and listen to their answers on “what are Monsters?”
2. Make Monsters out of paper
As a class review some basic shapes and get them to brainstorm what shapes to use for different body parts. Then use different coloured construction paper shapes, stickers, googley eyes, pipe cleaners and other crafty bits and bobs to make the paper monster.
3. Give him a name
Kids are very creative when it comes to naming things. They usually end up making a second mini monster because they A. love making them and B. want the monster to have a friend or a baby or a mummy… and I always let them, if there’s time.
4. Draw the Monster City together
Next arrange the desks into one long table or make space on the floor or hallway. I whip out my massive roll of newsprint paper, and tear off about 3 or 4 meters.
With your drawing materials (a big box of crayons, coloured pencils, sharpies and markers etc) let them go to town (haha get it…?) creating their imaginary cityscape.
They all work together, chatting and moving around to add their little additions to the drawing.
I adore this part of the project, they always have fun coming up with different buildings and places for their monsters to go: A lava swimming pool, monsters only hotel, flying cars, 3 suns, cotton candy trees, just to name a few.
By the way, those are actual things my students have come up with. I just love observing their creativity and imagination!
5. Mount The Monster City on a wall
When the city drawing is all finished, mount the cityscape low on the wall, gather round and admire what’s there. This is a great time give our new city a name!
6. Induction of the Monsters
Next, is probably the most fun. Introduce your monsters to the city! I like to make this part sort of ceremonious. One by one, the kids stand up and introduce their monsters and something special about him or her, like a special power or feature, and then they get to stick him onto the mural with blue tack.
That’s it! A super fun way to unleash your children’s creativity, make new friends, and share. This monster crafts project of course doesn’t have to be restricted to monsters, perhaps you want to try superheros, or paper dolls or self-portraits. Why not try coloured background paper to make a city at night, or on another planet? The possibilities are endless!
Below is another version of this project where we used paint to decorate the city.
