Preposition Poem and Paper Quilling

Preposition Poem and Paper Quilling

In my son’s Language class, his teacher asked them to make a “preposition poem” ( read as: a poem which has prepositions on it).

He was very excited to share with me the poem he wrote on his notebook.

The poem he made was of course, about Star Wars ( a poem which was so him).

It was entitled, ” Between Saga.”

It was a happy moment for me. ( mommy moment)

It made me even happier, knowing that he had put it all together on his own.

I look forward to the day when he will be creating more of this written pieces, in the future. Or of that day when he will be ready, to make a guest blog post here in The Soapbox Filipina.

Yehey! Good job dude.

And as after thought he said,

” Mom,we have this parent-child project at school. Miss Gee ( his Language teacher ) said that we have to create an art work related to our poem.”

The art work has to be created through paper quilling and corrugated paper.

Huwwwwwwwwhaaaaat?!?

And he warmly added, “no worries mom, you can do it, I will help you, do not worry.”

The thing with my son and I, we are huge fans of each other. And it helps once in a while. It gives us that boost of confidence we need.

I quickly made a mental note of the material.

Well, corrugated paper, I know. But paper quill-ing?

As my husband said, “diba yung quill…yun yung pen nuong unang panahon yung tip ng goose feather ,na minsan may kasamang ink blotter sa tabi? That is also the quill I know.

Paper Quilling The Soapbox Filipina Way

“You under-estimate the power of the dark side.” Don’t.

So, off I went to google —to search for paper quilling for dummies. I found out that it was in fact a verb and not a noun.

I saw pictures of Star Wars characters on Pinterest which were created using paper quilling. But the artworks seemed too small.

In addition to that, there were few details provided—definitely not the crash course I was looking for.

( and honestly, I thought that my son and I would not be able to create something so dainty.)

I could not find a clip on You Tube which specifically showed paper quilling while creating Star Wars characters using corrugated paper.

In other words, I was left in a galaxy far away.

I had to make do with what was on hand…but corrugated paper was not one them.

My husband went on a hunting expedition from Manila to Q.C. for corrugated paper strips but alas, he came back empty-handed.(still, I thank God for husbands who are supportive of their wives and children, all the way)

Corrugated paper and strips are too scarce nowadays.

It was a good thing that a co-parent offered to buy for us, bless her kind soul!

On google, I looked for clips on paper quilling and I watched the basic steps.

I had to consult my son on the details of the characters since he was the Star Wars fan and not me. I even had to borrow his book on how to draw Star Wars characters.

So at least, I was able to get the proportion of Vader’s mask and cape right.

Materials:

A4 sized corrugated paper
2 inch corrugated strips
googly eyes
toothpicks
puller
liquid glue
double adhesive
glue gun and glue stick
scissors
old box

First, we created the basic shapes which were the faces of the characters.
It was the easiest part —since you only have to roll the strips

(three strips connected on each end using double adhesive).

I delegated that task to my son. It was something he could do, without having to complain.

He just kept on rolling the strips to form the circular shapes for the faces.

The next part was so far the challenging part for me. And that would be creating the smaller details of the characters.

The level of difficulty is concentrated on the smaller pieces.

It may have been easier, if I were inherently crafty. But I am not…YET.

The time I spent on making, let’s say Yoda‘s ears, was greater than the time I spent on creating the entire Yoda piece.

The smaller pieces were just so tedious for me to make.

To make the small details like the ears and neck, I made the smaller sizes of the strips by cutting the strips into half—1 inch strip.

The smaller pieces really took my time.

For Princess Leia’s hair or ear muffs, as my son calls them, I rolled two small circles. I used two colors, yellow and black.

For Yoda’s ears, I had to roll the strip loosely so there is room left to pinch the edge.I had to pinch one end to create the leaf-like shape of Yoda’s ears.

At first, I used liquid glue to put everything in place but I had to use a glue gun since some parts were falling off. But using the glue gun was torture for me—the hot glue dripped on me like molten lava..waaaaaaaah!

Third, after I had all the pieces together, I rolled half a corrugated A4 paper to make Princess Leia’s body.

Then, also on corrugated A4 paper, I cut out Darth Vader’s cape and Yoda’s robe.

Finally, I took all the pieces together and I glued them using a glue gun. While my son was on the sidelines, orchestrating where to put who or what.

Therefore, I felt so empowered that I hope to create a “Luke Skywalker with a light saber”, soon. ( ambition is key)

Parent-child projects like this make me feel grateful, since this provides a bonding activity for parents and children.

My son and I would have this as a conversational piece in the house.

You know that technique in teaching where music is used to teach math? It is the same for language, I think. This is an effective way of teaching Language —by means of Art.

With this marriage between Language and Art, I say,“I do!”

“When I left you I was but the learner, now I am the master.”

-Darth Vader