#  >> K-12 >> K-12 For Educators

How to Make Backdrops for Nursery Rhymes

Presenting student renditions of nursery rhymes in class or in school assemblies can be an effective way for a teacher to expose students to public speaking, performing, and stagecraft. To make the presentations more attractive, you can make backdrops to hang behind the children as they recite the nursery rhymes.

Things You'll Need

  • masking tape
  • white bed sheets
  • 1/2 inch diameter dowel rods
  • stapler
  • acrylic paints
  • brushes
  • copies of nursery rhyme books
  • opaque projector
  • cup hooks
  • 4-foot by 4-foot piece of plywood, any thickness
Show More

Instructions

    • 1

      Cut squares out of white bed sheets. Make them approximately 4 feet by 4 feet. This will allow room for your student speaker to stand in front of or beside the backdrop while reciting a nursery rhyme. It is also large enough to be visible to the audience. Hang the bed-sheet squares on a wall using masking tape to temporarily hold them in place.

    • 2

      Position an opaque projector so that the light from it shines on a bed sheet backdrop and the light from it fills up most of the surface area of the backdrop. Place a nursery rhyme book with an illustration in the projector. The image from the book will be projected onto the backdrop.

    • 3

      Use acrylic paints to paint the nursery rhyme projection onto the backdrop. You will have to stand to one side to avoid blocking the light from the projector. Match the colors and shapes in the projected image with brushed-on acrylic paint. Paint over the projected image carefully, tracing the features of the characters with paint.

    • 4

      After your backdrop dries, pull off the masking tape. Roll the top end of the backdrop around a dowel rod. Once the dowel rod is inside the rolled hem, staple the sheet just below the dowel rod. Your goal should be to make the sheet tight around the dowel rod so it will be less likely to slip out.

    • 5

      Suspend your dowel rod from two cup hooks screwed into a wall. The dowel should rest in the cup portion of the cup hooks. When the presentation is finished, you can lift out the dowel rod and put the next backdrop in place. If the available wall will not accept a cup hook (such as a brick wall), lean a piece of plywood against the wall and screw the cup hooks into that.

Learnify Hub © www.0685.com All Rights Reserved