On the lookout for some original art projects for your ESL class? You’ve come to the right place! In the fall, we have an abundance of fall leaves, seeds, sticks and twigs, all of which are kindly provided by Mother Nature – no need to pluck them from trees and harm the environment. Here are some fantastic crafts you can do with your class:
Try These Original ESL Crafts with Sticks and Twigs
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1
Do fence me in!
A crafts project and lesson on prepositions of place rolled into one! If you happen to have a collection of toy barn animals for your young learners, how about giving them a safe place to hang out? With some sticks and twigs you’ll be able to make a pen where you’ll keep your animals. Take your twigs and arrange them like this:
You can glue the sticks to form your fence, tie them with some yarn, or tie up and add a drop of glue to make sure your fence stays put. Push the bottom ends onto a sheet of Styrofoam that your students may then paint green or brown, and even add a light blue pond. When all the paint has dried, let students arrange the animals inside the pen. Then, move some around and ask students: “Is the chicken on the fence or on the ground? Is it inside or outside the pen?” Let students move animals around and ask their classmates where they are.
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2
Flowery Twigs
How about bringing in some colorful flowers into an otherwise dark and bleak winter’s day? For this project, your class will need plenty of twigs, yogurt containers and tissue paper of different colors.
Use some of the tissue paper to wrap around the yogurt container. Cut out small squares out of red, pink, yellow, or blue paper and crumple. Cut out some leaves. Students glue the crumpled tissue paper flowers and leaves onto their twigs and finally arrange their bouquet in the yogurt container/flower pot.
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3
Stick Patterns
We use so many things in class to paint, why not try with some sticks and twigs and let your students discover the different patterns they can create! Students dip the ends of sticks and press them into some construction paper. If they use sticks of varying size, they may create patterns like this:
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4
Go Fish!
With some construction paper, magnets, paper clips, string and sticks, you can create you very own fishing game! To make the fishing rods tie some string at the end of each stick – make sure you pick some sturdy ones. Tie or glue a magnet to the other end of the string.
Cut out some fish shapes out of colorful construction paper. Glue two shapes together with a paper clip sandwiched in the middle. Young learners may simply count how many fish each team gets within a certain time limit, while for older students you may have questions written on the back of each fish. If students answer correctly, the team gets to keep the fish.
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5
Twig Mobile
Mobiles are great ways to review members of a family, colors, animals, or any vocabulary. All you need are some sticks and string, plus colorful illustrations you can either print or have your students make. Tie up the sticks like this, or in a similar fashion, adding as many sticks or illustrations as you like:
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6
Rustic Twig Picture Frame
These make wonderful Christmas presents! Make sure each of your students has 10 to 12 twigs of 7 to 9 inches long. Help them arrange the twigs leaving a space in the center for the photo they will frame.
Tie up the corners of the frame with some string or yarn till you have a firm frame, Glue photo to the back of the frame, and glue the back to the frame. Tie another piece of string to hang this picture perfect craft!
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7
Treerific Twig Pencil Holder
This fantastic pencil holder is a fine addition to any office! Give each of your students an empty tin can and enough sticks to glue all around the can’s outer edge. Make sure the sticks have been cut to almost the same length. Students glue each stick vertically, one at a time, and one next to the other till the outer side of the can is completely covered. Simple, yet full of rustic charm!
With these crafts, you can teach your students a thing or two about prepositions or new vocabulary, but more importantly, you can also teach them the value and usefulness of every little thing we find in nature.
And don’t forget to browse our ESL Essentials section, where you’ll find other useful tips for things you can do with seeds and beans or buttons, among others.
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