Elementary school teachers have known for years that butcher paper is a great tool for creating classroom decorations. It can be used along walls to show numbers and letters as wells as classroom events and important information for the students. Butcher paper can also be used for art projects that help the kids learn to cooperate and work together to make interesting ideas come to life. The following are a couple of projects that would be great for early year students.
Cartoon People - A fun and great way to put butcher paper to use is to create life-sized figures of yourself or people you know. Roll the paper out on the floor then lay down on the paper while someone else traces your body outline with a pencil. Color the picture using paints, crayons or markers. After the piece has been colored, cut it out and hang it on a door, or line a classroom wall with the "students."
History Lessons - Create a timeline for the period your classroom is studying in history. Tape the butcher paper along an entire wall of the room. Divide the students into sections, whether that is by decade, event or year and have them create events that are important in history. Another way to involve all of the students is to put a couple in charge of making the line and dates along the paper then assigning individual students to particular time frames. The students can then draw pictures of memorable events or write a short paragraph about them above each date.
