Creation Station

Help get your kids a little more excited about the start of school by working together to create a school bus picture frame for them to hang in their lockers or cubbies. Because this project requires scissors and a hot glue gun, grown-up assistance will be needed.

MATERIALS NEEDED

• 3 6-inch jumbo wood craft sticks (plain or colored)
• 5 4½-inch skinny wood craft sticks (plain or colored)
• Yellow craft paint and paint brush or sponge (if you aren’t using colored sticks)
• 4 oz. craft glue
• 1 sheet of black craft foam
• 2 white buttons (1 inch in size)
• 4-5 buttons of different colors (smaller than 1 inch)
• Stick-on plastic gems and other embellishments
• Letter stickers (optional)
• Sharp scissors
• Hot glue gun
• 1 magnet (optional)
• Photos

HOW TO

1. Place the 3 jumbo sticks and 5 skinny sticks on your workspace.
2. If you have plain sticks, paint both sides of each stick with yellow craft paint. Let dry.
3. Set the 3 jumbo sticks next to each other, horizontally with sides touching, on the workspace.
4. Cut 1 inch off one end of 4 of the skinny sticks.
5. Use the craft glue to glue the 4 sticks vertically across the jumbo sticks about 1 inch apart from each other.
6. When glue has dried, turn the stick/bus structure over.
7. Glue the uncut skinny stick horizontally across the top of the 4 skinny sticks to make the bus roof.
8. Let the glue dry for 10–15 minutes until the stick structure is sturdy.
9. While the bus is drying, use a pencil to trace two 2-inchcircles on the black craft foam and cut out the circles.Glue each circle onto the bottom of two jumbo craft sticks to resemble the bus wheels.
10. Embellish the wheels by gluing white buttons in the center of the black circles and other smaller colored buttons in the middle of the white buttons.
11. Make a headlight by placing one of the stick-on gemson the end of the top jumbo stick.
12. Personalize the bus by adding sticker letters for your child’s name or grade to the front of the bus.

To Add Photos

While our finished project didn’t include photos, this project is ideal to use as a miniature photo frame.

1. Cut photos to fit in the “windows,” leaving 1/8 inch on each side of the photo.
2. Run a thin bead of glue on the 1/8-inch edge of the front of the photos and then carefully place the window of the bus over the photo and press. Let dry.
3. Repeat steps 1 & 2 for other photos you want to attach.
4. Use the hot glue gun to affix a magnet on the back of the bus to display on a locker or another metal surface.

See hints for this project at right