A fun project for elementary classes is making salt dough or traditional gingerbread ornaments. The dough can be prepared ahead of time or made in class. The students use cookie cutter shapes to press into the dough. The dried shapes can be decorated with acrylic paint if using salt dough or icing and candy if using gingerbread. Gingerbread has ancient Greek and Egyptian roots and its evolution through the ages in various cultures is a great history lesson for students to share with family members.
A holiday wreath project works well for kindergarten through fifth grade students. This wreath is constructed on prepared cardboard wreath shapes wrapped with fabric scraps then decorated with pine-cones, acorns, cloves and cinnamon sticks. Elves with pine-cone bodies and painted acorn heads are also a good nature-inspired project. Twigs stacked and glued on a cardboard square can make little log cabin ornaments. Glitter-sprinkled cotton balls can represent snow on the roof, candy canes can edge windows and green gumdrop represent bushes.
A snowman, elf, Santa, or polar bear can be made from water bottles and glue-soaked layers of newspaper. After painting with white acrylic paint, recycled materials like felt can be added for scarves and other details. Candle holders can be made by painting recycled cans with metallic acrylic paints and adding plastic jewels around the sides or by rubbing white glue around the sides and then wrapping cans with colorful yarns and buttons. For fifth and sixth graders, poinsettia flowers and holly can be cut out of colored plastic two-liter bottles and strung together with fishing line to make festive garland.
Winter holiday themed art can be inspired by the works of Currier and Ives. Students can draw their own images using crayons on white paper after viewing winter and holiday scenes from collected calendar photographs. A watercolor wash of blue and gray can be used to teach a short lesson on values in artwork. Students apply the value wash on their completed drawings and when dry, blot the light value areas with white glue using a damp sponge; sprinkles of white glitter can be added. This technique works for paintings, Christmas cards, ornaments, wrapping paper and folded paper fans adding to a collection of handmade holiday gifts.