Recently, my mom (i.e., my kids’ Grandmum) was over helping with our homeschool preschool day. Just for fun, we decided to make glue monsters with the kids. This was a great project that combined arts and crafts, colors, science, and imagination all in one!
Although you can buy colored glue, we decided to make our own colors. Grandmum and I poured small amounts of glue into some tiny cups, and then we let the kids chose their own colors. They added drops of liquid watercolor to make the colors they wanted.
And then they stirred the color into the glue. We thought it looked prettiest when the color was marbleized rather than uniform.
The kids started by pouring their colored glue into some cookie cutters.
It seemed like a good idea, but it didn’t work out since the glue leaked out.
Then we just tried to make some free form shapes. XGirl loved spooning colored glue onto her paper.
And she loved mixing the colors together as well.
XGirl’s designs were all pretty free form. QBoy, on the other hand, wanted to create a specific image. Here he is adding a nose to his creature.
But the activity really got exciting when I brought out the googly eyes and sequins. The kids wanted all of their glue creations to have eyes and some bling.
It took the glue monsters a few days to dry, but in the end, we had some pretty cool looking creatures!
Note: One thing I didn’t expect was how much the glue would contract during the drying process. Any long arms coming off of the glue monsters contracted back during the drying process so that all the creatures ended up shaped more like blobs.
More arts and crafts resources
Popular arts and crafts activities from Gift of Curiosity:
- Painting with strings
- Leaf collages
- Tape resist watercolor painting
- Crystallized snowflakes
- Seed medallions
- Trace the shapes art project
- Corn husk dolls
Note: For more kid-friendly craft projects, see my Arts and Crafts for Kids page and my Arts and Crafts Pinterest board.
These are such CUTE monsters! What a fun, playful idea!
Beth =)
These look brilliant!
Adorable. We are going to give this a try. Thanks.
Hee Hee, so cute. What a neat idea because my son LOVES glue.
This looks fun! I wonder if I used food coloring paste if that would work as well? Might have to experiment.
Oh I love these! So cute and suitable even for little ones to make.
Those are cool! And I agree the colors are pretty all marbleized! Thanks for sharing on We Made That!
I think these are great. What a fun activity to enjoy with the kids. Thanks for sharing on HammockTracks.
-Savannah
Those look like a lot of fun. We do so many things with trial and error. The cookie cutters seemed like a good idea to me too.
How did you get them to come off so cleanly? I tried using glue to make window clings in the same way and it curled up and didn’t want to come off! Maybe we will try again! Thanks for sharing at Mom’s Library!
I don’t know, it really wasn’t a problem for us. We made them on parchment paper – maybe that was the trick?
Maybe. We will use parchment paper if we try again!
These are beyond cute! What a fun, playful idea!
Thanks so much for linking it up at TGIF!
Beth =)
How fun and cute!! Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!
He he! These are so cute!!! Thanks for linking to Share It Saturday! I am featuring you tomorrow.