Every year for the last English lesson in December I make Christmas decorations with my English kids. I try to use English... Anyway it gives the kids a taste of Christmas traditions and hopefully they keep the decorations as mementos of English class. We have made angels and wreaths and stars and hearts etc. etc.
What to do this year? I'm running out of ideas!
Well, I haven't done this with the kids yet but I figured I'd show this in case anyone else wants to try it this Christmas.
You need a large "cheap" sponge and one sponge can be cut (by scissors) into 48 boots. (Yes 48!) Cut the sponge in half and mark 8 boot shapes on the top. Cut those apart and then cut the width of the sponge into three. (Got that? There are three boots in one width of sponge boot shape.)
Cut off the corners rounding the boots a little and sew a string through the bottom of the boot to the top.
Wrap each boot in felting wool (raw wool?) A piece around the toe and heel part,
a piece around the ankle part.
Using hot water (not boiling!) and a drop or two of dish washing liquid, play around with the "boot" for about 10 minutes, squeezing, patting, rolling, petting. If you are too vigorous the wool will move around too much and you'll get bald spots.
OR you can play around about three minutes and then make a new boot in a different color and when you get 48 half made felt boots throw them all in a laundry net and put them in the washing machine. How neat is that! That is my student's invention for making lots of boots at one time. (Not so fun for the kids but a real time saver if you are making lots of boots.)
After it looks like most of the wool fibers have intertwined themselves you just rinse well in cold water, squeeze dry and glue on trim and a ribbon.
That's a pretty simple art project and I was thinking if there was more time and if I supply sequins then the kids could decorate their boots a little more.
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