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Festive Winter Window Decor and a Freebie

January 10, 2013 Maria Manore Gavin 39 Comments

This week my I entered my post-Christmas classroom and instantly felt the need to freshen it up and bring a little “winter wonderland” into our learning environment. We arrived at school on Monday with a fresh blanket of snow outside and it only seemed appropriate to add some wintry fun to the classroom windows.

Of course, I went straight for my “go-to” project of choice: “Stained Glass” Window Decorations. I just LOVE making these in the classroom. It’s a simple project that my students can do with minimal supervision, it’s not messy, and it’s QUICK!

What’s not to love about this great project?
"Stained Glass" winter scene made with contact paper and tissue paper

Supplies Needed

  • 1 black construction paper frame per student (mine was 11×7.75″ and .5″ thick)
  • 2 sheets of clear contact paper per student cut 2″ taller and wider than the black frame
  • 1 black construction paper snowflake cutout per student (I used the school die-cut machine to punch mine)
  • LOTS of pre-cut tissue paper squares in wintry colors (approximately 1″ in size)

Directions for Assembly

Peel 1 sheet of clear contact paper per student and place the paper STICKY SIDE UP on each student’s desk. You can faintly see the border of the contact paper around the black frame lines. I completed this task during play time while students were away from their desks.

(I laid a sheet of white construction paper under my work area for photography purposes. The white paper is merely a backdrop and was not necessary to complete the project).

Once the setup was complete, give each child one paper snowflake and instruct them to place the snowflake near the top of the sticky paper, but in a way so that it does not touch the frame. All of my students followed this direction perfectly.

snowflakeinframe

Then the real fun begins… students use 1 piece of tissue paper at a time to fill the inside of the frame. It’s ok to cover up the snowflake and the frame edge. The work side is actually the back of the project.
tissuepaper1
Keep adding more tissue papers…
tissue-paper2
…until the frame is finally FULL.
tissuepaper3
Once the frame is completely filled with tissue papers, peel the second piece of contact paper and place this STICKY SIDE DOWN on top of the tissue paper pieces. This seals all of those little papers firmly in place so they can’t escape (I always do this step for my kinders). Then flip the window over to reveal  the newly-created masterpiece.
stainedglasswindow
Trim the excess contact paper from around the frame
(my kinders can do this independently)…
cutframe
And voila! A beautiful “stained glass” window for the classroom.

finished-stained-glass

Sight Word Emergent Reader

Celebrate winter while you work on the sight word “it” with my latest Interactive Sight Word Reader “Brrr… it is Cold!” To complete the book, students cut out, unscramble, and glue letters to spell “it” on each page of the emergent reader. This Sight Word Reader only costs $1 and is perfect for a winter’s day!

It-is-Cold-cover-pic

Winter Color by Number FREEBIE

Since I’m in such a Wintry mood today, I also created a cute little Color by Number Penguin page. This quick little activity is great when you only have a few minutes. Add a subatizing element by having students roll a dice to determine which space to color. And since I try to conserve paper as often as possible, this freebie has been set up to print 2 per page.  Click the image below to download this great FREEBIE!

Penguin-color-by-number-cover-pic
Winter’s Blessings to You!

Celebrate the Holidays With Kindercraze

If you are looking for more fun holiday themed ideas, be sure to check out the blog posts below. They are filled with fun ideas and projects that will spread the joy of the holiday season.

Check Out These Other Stained Glass Ideas

Want to see more festive window decoration ideas? Click any of the links below for some fun projects that the children in your life will love to create!

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Art, Freebies, Interactive Sight Word Readers, Uncategorized art, Celebrate the Holidays, crafts, Decorations, stained glass, window decoration, winter

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Comments

  1. rooneyhunt says

    January 10, 2013 at 8:27 pm

    Your project is beautiful! Thank you also for the penguin freebie- my kinders enjoy those!

    ~ Amy

    Reply
    • Maria Manore says

      January 14, 2013 at 5:21 am

      You are so welcome for the freebie! My kids love those coloring activities too!

      Reply
  2. rebecca sutton says

    January 10, 2013 at 8:30 pm

    I just found your adorable blog and became your newest follower! Thanks so much for sharing your snowflake art idea and for the awesome penguin freebie!

    Rebecca
    Teaching First

    Reply
    • Maria Manore says

      January 14, 2013 at 5:22 am

      Hi Rebecca! Welcome to kinder-craze! I’m so happy you found some inspiration here!

      Reply
  3. Sarah Paul says

    January 10, 2013 at 8:37 pm

    What a beautiful project! My windows are facing a very busy street so there’s a lot of pressure to have really good stuff on my windows. 🙂 These would be PERFECT! Thank you for the idea!
    Sarah
    Sarah’s First Grade Snippets

    Reply
    • Maria Manore says

      January 14, 2013 at 5:22 am

      Hi Sarah! I am a BIG fan of seasonal stained glass window projects. It’s a great easy way to liven up a drab window.

      Reply
  4. diditeach says

    January 10, 2013 at 9:17 pm

    Very pretty…..the frames look lovely and wintry !

    Reply
  5. Tami says

    January 10, 2013 at 10:58 pm

    When I taught preschool I did something very similar-I used the negative part of a diecut and only 1 piece of contact paper. I would do this every month. I love this tho. How did you get the frame? Did you purchase one or did you cut out the center part of a piece of paper.

    Reply
    • Maria Manore says

      January 14, 2013 at 5:25 am

      Hi Tami! I love the idea of using the negative of the die-cut (especially for preschool!) Anything to make tasks even more simple for young children. The black frame is cut from black construction paper. I cut a rectangle, folded it in half, and cut out the center. I had a class set of frames in no time!

      Reply
  6. Sue says

    January 13, 2013 at 9:18 am

    LOVE your stained glass windows. I did something similar with my kids a few years ago as a Christmas activity – they looked great displayed on the windows.

    Thanks for the freebie.

    Sue
    SOS-Supply

    http://www.sos-supply.blogspot.com

    Reply
    • Maria Manore says

      January 14, 2013 at 5:26 am

      oooh, I LOVE seeing stained glass windows in December! That must have been so pretty.

      Reply
  7. Sally DeJesus says

    January 1, 2015 at 2:42 pm

    Thank you for sharing this awesome project!
    I’m dumping my previous planned first day as Pre-K Art Teacher project and doing this instead…

    Reply
    • Maria Manore says

      January 1, 2015 at 7:50 pm

      You are welcome. Enjoy!

      Reply
  8. Colleen says

    February 7, 2015 at 9:57 am

    Recently made these stained glass window snowflakes with 20 kids of all different ages and they all enjoyed it. Lots of fun and beautiful art piece when they are done. Loved it so much that I will be doing this project with my first graders class soon. Definitely helps to have all pieces precut and individual bags with all supplies in it to make it go smoother. ❄️

    Reply
  9. Brenda says

    December 6, 2017 at 9:10 am

    I can’t seem to find contact paper. I see rolls of it, or “shelf liners”. I’m assuming you buy a box of so many sheets though. Can you give details?

    Reply

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 Maria Gavin round Hello there and welcome!
I'm Maria Gavin - a kindergarten teacher, curriculum developer, educational blogger and founder of Kinder Craze.

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