Silly Seussical Hats at the PTA Fair!

Today I had a fun time at the second annual PTA Family Fun Fair making silly hats! I had a display about the Art of the Play explaining all of the different jobs or roles that people can do in a play (or behind the scenes) if they have an interest in dance, music, theater, building, drawing, painting, or playing an instrument! When putting on a play, there truly is something for everybody!

Yep, that's me in my silly hat--I wore it all day! I even saw a bunch of people
I went to high school with while wearing it! :-)

I had  originally wanted to have children create masks as a tie-in to the play and costume design. However, I didn't want the children to churn out the same masks or have it cost too much. But I wanted them to have fun and come away with something they designed to wear.

I decided to have the children create silly hats instead (or headbands if you want to be super-technical about it!). These are made from 1" and 2" strips of construction paper (12" long) and staples. That's it.

I toyed with the idea of bringing pom poms, pipe cleaners, feathers, hole punches, and peel and stick foam shapes, stickers, glue sticks, and tape. But I didn't. And it was great!

Some old friends stopped by to create and say "Hello!"

I did, however, make a few hats and pass them around for grown-ups who were working the fair to wear. And I was wearing the one in my pict above that demonstrated a few paper tricks (folding, twisting, linking, curling) and that got them going an showed them some options. I also had a poster showing some paper tricks (pretty much the same as above).

And then I crossed my fingers. Was it too simple? Would anyone want to make a silly hat? I did have a couple children look frightened at me when I asked them if they wanted to make one (kind of a deer in the headlights look!). Gradually, however, children (and some grown-ups) began to create and design.

I really suggest this easy, wonderful project if you have a little time and some paper strips (and a whole bunch of staplers!).

And thank you to the grown-ups who were such good sports!

This hat seriously went beyond anything I could have dreamed!

Some other projects that are like this, appear on these fabulous blogs, so check 'em out!

Seussical Landscapes from Mrs. Knight's Smartest Artists:
http://dolvinartknight.blogspot.com/2014/03/making-art-in-media-center.html

Cut Paper-Collage Hats from Art For Small Hands
http://www.artforsmallhands.com/2010/08/cut-paper-collage-hats.html

ENJOY!