Homeschool Craft Project: Make Paper Mosaic Animals

If you homeschool or teach young children in the classroom, you can help them learn about animals through paper mosaic craft projects. For example, if you are teaching a unit on jungle animals, you could enhance your lesson plan with paper mosaics of monkeys, leopards, or parrots.

This craft project is inexpensive and requires few supplies. Older children can help by drawing the animal silhouettes while younger children can glue the paper mosaic pieces.

Supplies Needed for Paper Mosaic Animals

Assorted colors of construction paper
Pencil
Scissors
Colored Pens
Glue
Googly eyes (optional)
Feathers for birds (optional)
Wax paper (to protect table surface)
Pictures of animals for reference

Step-by-Step Instructions to Make Paper Mosaic Animals

1. Decide on a particular animal or theme in advance. Hint: By deciding the animal in advance, you can avoid classroom squabbles.

2. Find pictures of animals in magazines or online to help the children learn about the particular animal: what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, etc.

3. Draw an animal silhouette on one piece of solid colored construction paper.

4. Use the scissors to cut carefully. Older children can help out with this step.

5. Make one animal silhouette for each child in your homeschool room or classroom.

6. Cut small rectangles or squares out of different colors of construction paper. You may want to do part of this step in advance as younger children will become quickly bored watching you cut these squares or may become frustrated cutting the pieces themselves.

7. Sort the paper mosaic pieces by color.

8. Place a piece of wax paper or vinyl tablecloth on the work surface to protect it from glue.

9. Give a glue stick and an animal silhouette to each child.

10. Teach the children how to apply glue in stages or small sections to the paper silhouette.

11. Apply paper mosaic pieces to the glue.

12. Continue to use the glue stick to apply glue to more sections, and then apply the paper mosaic pieces until the animal silhouette is filled in completely.

13. Add a googly eye to your paper mosaic animal. For birds, glue colorful feathers to the paper mosaic.

14. Allow to dry.

15. Use the markers to draw in other features or to write the child's name on the paper mosaic craft animal.

Embellishment Options for Paper Mosaic Animals

1. Turn the paper mosaics into masks and put on a play!

2. Have the paper mosaics laminated into keepsakes for parents or grandparents.

3. Use other materials such as glitter, rhinestones, paint, tissue paper, beads, wire, or pipe cleaners to make 3D paper mosaic animals.

4. Make a classroom mobile using the paper mosaic animals.