A cut and paste art project allows children to practice following directions from a teacher, and to improve fine motor dexterity as they flip through pages, cut or tear paper and apply paste to a page. Math skills come into play when a project calls for cutting a certain number of pieces of paper, such as seven rectangles of blue construction paper. Children also learn to work independently as they make their projects
Cut yellow construction paper into a few dozen petals. Cut a long rectangle out of green construction paper. Paste the petals on a paper plate and paste the stem to the back of the plate. Cut some small pieces of brown paper and paste them to the center of the sunflower in layers for the seeds.
Cut a large round shape out of gray construction paper to serve as the elephant's body. Draw or trace an elephant's head, trunk, ears and legs on gray paper and cut them out separately. Draw two pointy tusks, not as long as the trunk, on white paper and cut them out. Cut a sheet of green paper in thirds and paste one-third of the green paper onto a large sheet of blue paper, to serve as a background of grass and sky. Paste the tail, the front and rear legs, one ear and one tusk of one side of the elephant into the scene. Put paste on the body and position it so it covers the body parts previously pasted down. Paste the head and then the other ear, front and back legs, trunk and tusk of the other side of the elephant on top of the body.
Cut out three circles from white construction paper and then cut small black circles to serve as coal for the eyes, mouth and buttons. Cut out thin brown rectangles for the arms and a pointy orange carrot. Paste the snowman body pieces on a sheet of very pale blue paper, which will serve as a frozen icy background. Paste on the black circles on the snowman's head for the eyes and mouth and paste more of them on his body for buttons. Paste the carrot nose on the head and then paste on the brown stick arms.