Mr Men School: Five Modelling Ideas

Our art is always based on process not product.  That said, the children enjoy making something that is recognisable to the picture they began with in their heads.  Here are a few of our more enjoyable projects trying to replicate some Mr Men and  Little Miss characters:

1.  Junk Modelling

Junk modelling is a cheap, environmentally friendly and most importantly fun activity to do during a rainy day.  Anything which will ultimately be thrown out can be used as long as it is clean and has no sharp edges.  Card, containers, bottle tops, buttons, fabric scraps, sweetie wrappers, tubes….they can all be transformed with just a little bit of imagination.

Making things from junk is a deceptively simple activity for children old and young, requiring visionary and lateral thinking, the use of design and problem solving skills as well as the satisfaction of a new and useful end product.

Mr Men, being made of simple shapes and block colours, are very easy to model with junk.  We save up all sorts of rubbish which the children then turn into Mr Men characters with the help of white glue, scissors and stacks of imagination.  After creating the actual shapes of the characters the models can then be collaged with coloured paper or painted with a thick acrylic paint.

Mr Tickle was the first attempt.  We used stuffing, a flour bag, toilet roll, tape and paint:

It was successful and they thoroughly enjoyed the process:

 2.  Plasticine or play dough models

Play dough and Plasticine is always available to my little ones to play with.  Play dough is their preference because of its malleability:

However Plasticine has great colours which means they are perfect for creating Mr Men and Little Miss figures.  It is made even more special if older siblings come along side and not only help with the modelling but also put on an impromptu play using the Plasticine characters as puppets:

3.  Paper plate models

Mr Men and Little Miss characters just beg to be made into paper plate models, so we obliged and made a few!

B3 concentrated her efforts on a Mr Bump.  She painted him blue and I helped her to wrap a real bandage around him a couple of times.  We added felt features and feet:

She did a great job and enjoyed it so much, she and her sister made a few more:

4.  Mr Men collages

We have done lots of collages over the past year.  Collage making is another activity which is easy to do using bits and bobs found free (in the home or in the environment).  Our favourites have been using paint strips to make a Little Miss Naughty:

Anything pink I could find around the house to make a Mr Greedy:

And combining paper plate models with collaging to make a Little Miss Sunshine:

5.  Making a Mr Men toy

Mr Men are so simple to make on account of their very regular shapes and colours.  Over the past year or so the older girls have sewn their own Little Miss Twins to give to B3 as a birthday present:

The little ones have used a kit to make a Mr Bump (B3) and Little Miss Sunshine (A6), which they still love to take to bed each night:

And there you have it.  Five modelling ideas to go along with our Mr Men school!