Paper bunting banner

A few weeks ago we celebrated Farsang in Hungary. Farsang - which literally means 'carnival' in English - is a really fun annual event. The kids dress up, they play games, and the mood is generally happy and bright. I wanted to do an art project with my students that would bring some of this carnival atmosphere into the classroom and I thought that brightly coloured bunting banners would be ideal.

Unfortunately, while I think the end results looked spectacular, it was quite a time consuming project. It took two 40 minute classes to complete the banners, and even then less than half of my Grade 2s finished in time. This was in spite of me doing an awful lot of the prep at home for them before the second class.

Another problem with this project is that there wasn't really much of a focus on English. It was basically just a cute craft project. Oh well.

Anyway, In spite of these issues, I thought I'd still share this project as I really, really loved the finished results.

Click "Read more" below for lesson plans/instructions.

PREPARATION FOR FIRST LESSON

1. Decide what word/s you want your banner to say and then draw or print the letters onto a single A4 page so that it can be photocopied
   For example, my banner said "FARSANG" so I drew/traced the letters F, A, R, S, A, N and G onto a piece of paper
   Try to squeeze the letters onto the page in a way that enables them to stay as large as possible.
   
2. Photocopy one letters page for each child
   
3. Make your own banner so that you can show the kids what the finished product will look like

FIRST LESSON PLAN

1. Get the kids to set up their desks with tempera paint, water pots, brushes, palettes and scissors 
2. Write Farsang Banner as a heading on the blackboard
   Hang the banner underneath
   Ask the students “What colours can you see?” and get them to name them
   
3. Hand out plain A4 pieces of paper to each student - you will need to hand out one piece of paper for every four letters in your banner
   For example, the FARSANG banner has seven letters, so each student was given two pieces of paper
   
4. Show the students how to fold each piece of paper into 4 sections (fold in half lengthways, then in half in the opposite direction)
   
   Take scissors and cut the folded paper into a triangle shape - basically this involves cutting from the middle of one end to the corners of the opposite end
   
5. Get the kids to unfold their pieces of paper
   Show them how to cut their pieces so that they are left with eight equal flag shapes
   The leftover pieces of paper can be discarded Get the kids to write their name on the back of each flag
   
6. Hand a letters page to each student
   Tell the kids to cut out the letters carefully and to write their name on the back of each one
   The kids should now have eight triangular shapes and all of their letters cut out
   
7. Tell the kids to paint their letters and flags
   In my opinion this is the most time consuming part of the process. You may want to implement a specific colour scheme or limit the number of colours that the kids can use to save time.
   
   End of first lesson

PREPARATION FOR SECOND LESSON 

How much preparation you do before the second lesson will have a major impact on how long the project takes to complete. Obviously the more you do beforehand, the more quickly the students will be able to assemble their banners. Of course, the more you do beforehand, the less interesting and challenging this project is for the kids.

Everything in this section is something that you can either do yourself or leave until the lesson and have the kids do instead.

1. When the flags have dried, use a hole punch to make two holes at the top of each one
   
2. Gather the flags and letters of each child and place them into small individual bags or envelopes
   This makes it much quicker/easier to allocate them at the beginning of the next class
   
3. Pre-cut coloured crepe paper into strips 4-5 centimetres wide
   Each strip should be slightly longer than the sides of the flags
   You can use as many different colours of crepe paper as you like
   You will need to make sure that you cut enough strips to cover both sides of each flag
   For example, the FARSANG banner had seven flags that needed crepe paper fringes and each flag had two sides. 7 x 2 = 14. This is then multiplied by the number of children in the class. 14 x 20 = 280. Hence, you would need to prepare 280 strips of crepe paper for a class of 20 students to make a FARSANG banner (or any other banner with 7 letters).
   
4. Cut each crepe paper strip into fringes
   
5. Cut lengths of wool or string long enough to be threaded though the banner's letters leaving approximately 20 centimetres leftover at each end

SECOND LESSON PLAN

The second lesson will vary considerably depending on how much preparation you have done beforehand. But, the main idea remains the same - get the kids to gather together all of the pieces of their banner and then combine them into the finished product.

1. Take one of the coloured flags and turn it over so that the uncoloured side is face up
   Place a line of glue along the two edges
   Attach two fringed strips of crepe paper to the glue
   Repeat for each flag
   
2. Turn the flags over so that the coloured side is face up
   Glue one of the letters to the middle of the flag
   Note that some parts of the letter may hang off the banner - this is okay!
   
3. Make sure that the flags are in the correct order
   Thread a length of wool/string through the holes at the top of each flag 
   
   Congratulations, your flag is now complete and ready to hang

- Amanda