I created this project as my “creative piece” for a grad class project. They were all about metaphors in that program so I used the hot air balloon as a metaphor for my learning. I thought it was super cute and would look great on a bulletin board so I plan on doing it with my class next year. We call that a win, win! Project, check! Fun art project, check!

Mine is a rainbow as part of the metaphor included how each colour represented part of my learning. You don’t have to do it in these colours, you could have them do any colour variation!

Time required: 2 sessions

1 - 10 min

2 - 45+ min

Materials

White paper with hot air balloon template printed (I used 11x17 but you can make an 8.5x11 size version)
Blue tempera or watercolour paint
Paint brush
Pencil crayons, crayons or oil pastel (grey & brown)
Tissue paper squares (I used red, orange, yellow, green, blue)
- I made mine a rainbow but students could do any colour variation!
White glue
Optional - pencil to aid in tissue application
Optional - white acrylic paint and cotton balls or round foam brushes for clouds

Teacher prep:

You’ll need to print your hot air balloon onto the paper. Here’s the one I used. I just opened a Powerpoint document and inserted the image. Then I resized it to make sure it took up most of the space. I printed mine on 11x17 but you can do a smaller version.
Pre-cut the tissue paper squares. I like to use the big paper cutter to make quick work of this.

Steps - session 1 (10 minutes)

*This could be done earlier in the day, or the day before. We just need enough time for the paint to dry.

*note: I didn’t do the basket first in my sample, I did it after. You can just do painting in this step if you wish and do the basket later.

Colour in the basket using shades of brown. You can use pencil crayons, crayons or even oil pastel for this.
Paint the background any shade of blue. In my sample there was a bit of purple in the paint, but I thought it made it look quite pretty so I left it.
Leave the paint to dry.

Steps - session 2 (45+ minutes)

Begin filling each section of the balloon with tissue. I suggest starting in the middle and working your way out, so in my example I did yellow, then orange and then red. Then, I went the other direction.
You can use a pencil to help you with the glue. Simply use the eraser side to dip the tissue into the glue, then press it into place and lift up.
If you didn’t do the basket during session 1, go ahead and add it in now.

As an optional final step, you could have students add some clouds by using white acrylic paint and some cotton balls or sponge brushes.

Hot Air Balloon PDF Instructions