This post has a torn paper craft project inspired by O Canada by Ted Harrison. Ted Harrison is one of Canada’s modern artists. This book is the first illustrated edition of Canada’s national anthem, “O Canada.”
Different lines of the song, which is in both French and English, are paired with Canada’s territories and provinces. Each territory and province is described at length for a picture book. Adults will find the information interesting, too. I immediately thought of the winter Olympic Games in Vancouver (2010) just looking through the book.
The paintings in the book are vivid, bold, and colorful. Looking at the pictures will inspire students to work on similar art projects with torn construction paper, markers, crayons, and possibly paints. This is another book which is actually a song.
Torn Paper Craft Project
Student responses might include torn paper projects, digital clip art, or oil pastels. There are a few pictures in the linked slide show presentation that are inspired by the art in O’CANADA, which you can easily spot.
For the torn paper version, children stack up some sky or earth colors and tear in a jagged edge all at once. Then, they separate them to arrange them as a sunset or earth layers. Gluing the different colors at the same time allows for a layered look and a pretty look. Everyone can be successful in tearing paper! Gluing will take a little more concentration as the last color is glued at first, going to the top. The top color is glued last.
The free PDF has a sailboat, a house, and a tree shape. The sailboat shape may be cut out as it is because it will print in black. The house and tree shapes would be traced on black paper and glued on the page as a final touch. Click on the next link for the PDF free instant download. Of course, children may create their own ideas, as well.
shapes-for-torn-paper-project-freebie
There are many version of torn paper craft art available, so perhaps after making one project students could apply that knowledge to a different version and make something to represent Canada. Do your students study Canada at all? Or has one of the students recently visited that country? Perhaps you live in Canada. There are many opportunities to allow children to apprentice themselves to the work of artists such as using the pictures in this book as a model.
You might also like the free Canada Activities pack I made for my guest post on the Castleview Academy blog. 
Thank you for reading! Carolyn
