Easter Crosses

I absolutely love art projects in the classroom.  Going through a new process with my kindies and watching how excited they get to create something on their own warms my heart!  I get a lot of my ideas and inspiration from my momma who is quite the talented artist.  This simple cross oil pastel activity is one of my favorites and super easy, so even I can handle it!

You will need white construction paper, white paper crosses, and oil pastels.  I use the school’s die cut machine to make the crosses but you can easily make a cardboard cross and help the kiddos cut out their own paper cross too.

The pastels I use are the Crayola Oil Pastels that you can purchase on Amazon.  I have found that these are the most reasonably priced and are very easy for the kids to use since they are a little bigger and thicker.

Now to get started… give each child a white piece of construction paper and have them lay their white cross on top, right in the middle.  I tell my kiddos that their most important job is to not let that cross move at all.  We “glue” our hands on the cross to keep it in place.

Next the kiddos pick 2-6 of their favorite colors and put those pastels right by their paper.  I try to steer the kids away from brown or black because the dark colors really overpower everything else.  The kiddos start by coloring a little strip of color right along the edge of the cross (about 1/4 long to 1/2 inch long).  It’s really important that the medium gets onto the paper and the cross to create a clean line.  They follow all around the edge of the cross repeating their pattern of colors.

When all edges of the cross have been colored then it’s time to get a little messy!  Make sure to push up those sleeves ;0)  I help the kiddos continue to keep the cross in place as we use our fingers to spread the oil pastel out away from the cross.  This can be a little hard for the kindies, so often we do this step together.

After all of the oil pastel has been spread, we lift the cross and the result is beautiful.

These crosses can be used as a gift, classroom decorations or a bulletin board.  This year I wanted to brighten up our hall and spread a little Easter love!

I hope you have a chance to give this art project a try, I would love to hear how it works in your classroom.

Happy Easter!