This activity required a bit of prep work before hand but it is mess free and requires little to no clean-up so it is worth a shot. Basically, I cut a cereal box so that I had two cardboard rectangles (any type of stiff cardboard like material would do). Next, I used Mod Podge to secure a large sheet of rough sandpaper to the cardboard. I trimmed the cardboard to the size of the sandpaper so there was no overhang. If you want, you can cover the back of the cardboard, the side opposite the sandpaper, with scrapbook paper to make it a bit more attractive but that step is obviously not necessary for the sake of the activity. Then, I cut up felt sheets of paper into shapes – I didn’t use any sort of stencil or tracing, just rough cuts into shapes. It doesn’t have to be perfect, right? The fun part is that the felt shapes stick to the sandpaper and the kids can make collages of shapes on their sandpaper canvas.
I was inspired by this activity: http://www.modernparentsmessykids.com/2012/03/yarn-sandpaper-cereal-box-fabulous-3-in.html, however, I chose to go with felt instead of yarn because for my grade of sandpaper roughness, the yarn didn’t stick very well. I suppose it works for a finer sandpaper – mine was quite rough.
There are numerous possibilities and ways to display the shapes on the cardboard and it all sticks like magic!