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Petite People


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Affordable Art for a Sensational Spring

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Subjects

  • Arts & Humanities

Grades

  • K-2
  • 3-5
  • 6-8
  • 9-12
  • Advanced

Brief Description

Use toothpicks and embroidery floss (or clothespins and yarn) to make little people to wear as pins or to display in student-created dioramas.

Objectives

Students will
  • design a toothpick or clothespin doll.
  • follow instructions.

Keywords

art, craft, doll, toothpick, floss, pin, diorama, following directions, yarn, clothespin

Materials Needed

  • toothpicks, round or flat (option for younger students -- clothespins, the push-on variety, not the spring-loaded ones)
  • scissors
  • glue
  • embroidery floss in assorted colors (option for younger students -- fine yarn)
  • bar pins (optional)

Lesson Plan

Tiny toothpick dolls make great pins to wear or ideal figures to populate dioramas, and all they require are a few inexpensive materials.

Begin by cutting the toothpicks for young students. Older students can handle this portion of the work by themselves. Each student will need: a body, two arms, and two legs. Prepare toothpicks by removing all sharp, tapered ends. Toothpicks cut to size for the body are about as long as they can be without these ends, or 1 3/4 inches. Arms are about 1/4 of the toothpick in length (1/2 in.) and legs are about 3/4 inch.

Note: The youngest students might use clothespins (the push-on variety, not the spring-loaded ones) instead of toothpicks to create a similar, though larger, project.

To assemble a doll, students should take a length of string in the color they have selected for the head and glue the end 1/2 inch from one end of the body. They should wrap the string progressively, building up to a rounded shape and tapering it at the top. Once they are satisfied with the size of the head, the students may clip the floss and glue its end down in a portion they will consider the back of the doll.

Students might use fine yarn in place of embroidery floss.

Next students should select a color of floss for the shirt of the doll. They should glue an end of the floss about 1 inch below where the head begins and wrap it up to the start of the head. Then the arms may be placed on two sides of the body piece with their ends at the point where the head and shirt meet. Wrapping continues over the upper end of all of the three toothpick pieces and extends about 1/4 of an inch to make the shirtsleeves and secure the arms. Students should again glue the end of the floss to the back of the doll.

Students may choose a color of floss for the pants or skirt and cover the last portion of the body piece with it in the same glue-and-wrap method. (It is best to begin at the end of the toothpick and wrap up to the floss that creates the shirt.) Then they may place the two leg pieces on either side of the body, at about 1/2 inch from the bottom or where the shirt ends, and continue to wrap over the leg and body pieces to secure the legs. For a skirt appearance, wrap over all three pieces and then over the two leg pieces to the desired length. For pants, wrap over three pieces to the end of the body, and then wrap each leg separately.

If desired, attach a bar pin lengthwise to the back of the doll with glue.

Upon completion of the basic doll, students may design and attach hairstyles and other embellishments to make the miniature characters more interesting.

If students use their Petite People in diorama presentations, they may need to use cardboard (white or painted) to support the people. A 4-inch strip of cardboard should do. Fold it in half. Glue one half to the bottom of the diorama, bend up the other half to support the people; glue the supporting section to the back of the people.

Assessment

All students should complete a basic doll that has all parts as explained in the instructions.

Lesson Plan Source

Education World

Submitted By

Cara Bafile

National Standards

FINE ARTS: Visual Arts

  • GRADES K - 4

  • NA-VA.K-4.1 Understanding and Applying Media, Techniques, and Processes
    NA-VA.K-4.6 Making Connections Between Visual Arts and Other Disciplines


  • GRADES 5 - 8

  • NA-VA.5-8.1
    Understanding and Applying Media, Techniques, and Processes
    NA-VA.5-8.6 Making Connections Between Visual Arts and Other Disciplines


  • GRADES 9- 12

  • NA-VA.9-12.1 Understanding and Applying Media, Techniques, and Processes
    NA-VA.9-12.6
    Making Connections Between Visual Arts and Other Disciplines

More Resources
We've gathered lesson ideas that are sure to brighten your classroom and plant seeds of learning on our special First Day of Spring page. Click to return to this week's lessons, Affordable Art for a Sensational Spring.

Originally published 03/21/2003
Last updated 02/21/2007