Farm Landscape Collage

Today your little one builds a whole farm out of paper. Green hills, a red barn, a yellow sun and fluffy clouds: every piece is torn, placed and glued by little hands. It's a calm art project with a lot of looking and talking built in.

What you need

• 1 sheet of blue or white paper for the background

• Construction paper in green, red, yellow and brown

• A glue stick

• Cotton balls

• Optional: child-safe scissors

• Optional: crayons or markers for details

How to do it

1. Make the ground. Tear green paper into long strips and glue them along the bottom for hills and fields.

2. Add the barn. Glue a red square on a hill. Add a triangle roof and a small brown door. (You can cut these out ahead of time.)

3. Add the sky. Glue on a yellow circle sun, then stretch a few cotton balls into clouds.

4. Add the animals. A cotton ball with drawn-on legs makes a sheep. Draw a cow or a pig, or add stickers.

5. Look closely. Ask, "What is close to us? What is far away?" Artists look closely before they add the next piece.

Why we love it

Tearing paper strengthens the same finger muscles kids use for writing. Building a picture in layers (ground, then barn, then sky) is how artists plan a landscape, and it goes right along with this week's episode, where Sprout looks closely like an artist.

Tips from our table

• Two-year-olds can skip the scissors. Torn shapes look great.

• Cut out the barn shapes for little ones and let them choose where everything goes.

• Take it outside: glue on real grass or small leaves for extra texture.

• Save the collage. We'll look at it again on Friday when we talk about texture.

Shop these items

Everything mentioned in this post, in one place. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

• Crayola construction paper

• Elmer's glue sticks

• Cotton balls

• Crayola toddler safety scissors

• Crayola jumbo crayons

• Shop everything for Week 6: Farm

• Starter supplies: the basics we use most weeks

• See every week in our Amazon storefront

More for this week: see all our Farm activities, Letter F activities and Number 6 activities.

Every child is different. Please use your own judgment about what's safe and right for your family. Always supervise children during activities and while eating, and adjust foods for allergies, dietary needs and your child's age and chewing ability. Sprocket & Sprout shares these ideas for fun and learning only. We are not responsible for any injury, allergic reaction, damage or mess that may result from trying them. This post may contain affiliate links; if you buy through them, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.