A Simple Collage from The House That Santa Built

We do a lot of picture book-inspired
crafts here, but this Christmas one is special. On one hand, it’s a fun holiday
craft for kids. On the other hand, it’s a lesson in art and observation.

Picture Book Month

It’s Picture Book Month, and
I’ve signed up to share the work of talented illustrator Holly Stone-Barker.
The captivating, detailed collages she created for The House That Santa Built
(affiliate) are a lot of fun to study.

Sometimes, when you’re the
one doing the read-aloud, you don’t immediately notice all the details in the
illustrations. At least, that’s how it is for me. Slowly, after a few readings,
I start to notice and appreciate the picture book’s visual elements.

With The House That Santa Built, I wanted to look carefully at the
pictures right away. They are captivating.

The story is lively and a
lot of fun too. I instinctively turned it into an interactive read aloud – but more
on that later.

The Art of Collage

I called my kids over to
look at the lovely illustrations with me.

“Did you know that this
illustrator didn’t draw any of these pictures?”

They stopped playing and
looked up.

“Really?” one of the girls
said.

All three kids came over to
see. I explained how Stone-Barker had created the illustrations by making
collages for each page.  All three of my
kids were suitably impressed. 

We talked about how Holly Stone-Barker must have carefully chosen and cut out each element before
assembling them into the charming pictures.

A Christmas Tree Craft for Kids

Before I read my kids the
story, I showed them the craft we’d be doing.  I wanted us to make
something inspired by one of the
illustrations in the story. I also wanted to teach them about the art of collage.

Most of the elaborate pictures
have way too many detailed parts for little kids. (My girls are in kindergarten).
There is one full page featuring a Christmas tree similar to the one on the
cover. I thought we could do a simplified
version of that.

Loosely referring to the
illustration, I made a template of 6 triangles in a gradient of sizes. 

I rummaged through our craft
paper and my box of scrapbook paper and found a variety of green paper. Then, I
helped each of my girls choose and trace the template triangles onto the green
paper. They cut out each of the triangles and glued them onto a background paper
independently.

For the star and the
snowflake, we used our craft punches. 

I adore towering, teetering
6-year-old versions. They have so much more character than my boring neat one,
don’t you think?

A Rollicking Read Aloud

The story itself is based on The House That Jack Built. It’s a cumulative story filled with rhythm. Every line invites children to participate, so it’s loads of lively fun to read aloud. One of my favorite parts reads, 

This is the reindeer (stomp! stomp!)
That ran after the elf (hee, hee)
That tried to catch the mouse (squeak, squeak)

To make it even more fun, as we went, I assigned each of my kids parts. I would prompt them to say the words in parenthesis. I’d love to do this with a larger group of kids. I’d give them each a slip of paper with their part on it, and make it a rollicking good time.

But for now, we’ll stick to just the picture book crafts. I’ve hung my kids’ Christmas tree collages where my advent calendar goes every year, and I hate to move them. They are definitely staying on display somewhere until Christmas.

You may also like to see all the other picture book crafts I’ve collected on Pinterest. Many of them are from Picture Book Month.