Retro Rockets … Away!

Grade 3/4: Fun With Paper Collage

It’s hard to go wrong with space ships. Kids’ eyes light up at the mere mention of them. So, there was no lack of enthusiasm when I showed them that they were going to get to make their own …

I brought out different retro style rocket shapes I prepared as templates for them to trace and cut out of squares of boxboard (scrounged from Costco cardboard). I had also brought my box of special scrap paper from home (the one that never seems to be anything but stuffed full). Even more exciting!

Now it was time for them to decorate their rockets, using more than one paper and covering the cardboard completely. I encouraged them to think about the different parts or markings they might see on a rocket, and use those ideas while they make choices cutting paper.

When they finished covering their rockets, they chose from the boxes of streamers, ribbons and vegetable/fruit netting and the teacher helped them to staple them on -fiery rocket blasts. We finished the rockets with outlining the edges and any other details with black paint.

As a side, I set up a couple of pizza boxes as a makeshift spray booth. The kids enjoyed taking turns with it to ‘spray’ large pieces of blue paper with watered-down white and silver paint, using … toothbrushes. They’d never done that before.

Later, I attached the rockets to their blue pages, using foam pieces between to make the rockets ‘hover’. I think they look great!