Chapter 17: Creating Pictures Frames Using Newspapers

 Chapter 17: Creating Pictures Frames Using Newspapers 

Date:15th June 2024 Saturday 1:45 am & 3:30 am

This is yet another interesting post about an interesting session on newspaper craft. This session was held at the Ranaa Child Welfare Foundation, a school for street children in Peshawar. They learned about making paper bags and other objects using old newspapers. The technology use was minimal and mostly students focused on the arts and crafts work. It was great to see the learners trying and putting in an effort to make new objects by just watching the videos on YouTube on the laptop.

The lesson started off with a discussion on recycling and reusing objects, for example old newspapers, water bottles, cans , shoe boxes etc. After a little discussion learners came up with different ideas about recycling and reusing objects. They could discuss the impact of plastic bags on the environment, and how these plastic bags could block the rivers and cause damage to the environment. The plastic bags block the manholes on the roads etc causing pollution. They also discussed advantages of plastic and paper bags and how each would impact the environment.

The learners watched a video on YouTube about how to make a paper bag using old newspapers. They were provided with all the resources including old newspapers, scissors, glue , paints , stapler etc. Most of the students were able to follow the steps by watching the video and were able to create a paper bag. Some of the students still needed assistance so I helped them out by demonstrating the steps. Some of  the learners were eager to make more objects from the newspapers. They watched a few videos of making a boat , a basket etc on YouTube. They were able to make a boat, flowers, planes and paper bags. 

One of the students tried making a box out of a newspaper. The box was made by weaving the pieces of newspaper together and it was very difficult and challenging. He watched the video several times and paused to follow the steps but he did not give in till he had completed the box. It required a lot of effort and he was able to finally weave a box using newspaper. Similarly he was able to make a boat by watching the video on YouTube. This was a difficult task but he was able to make it. They watched the videos on my laptop. Since I had already explored newspaper craft videos on YouTube, I made sure the learners explore similar videos. A few learners were observed searching for newspaper craft videos on YouTube in my presence.The only concern with YouTube is advertisements or inappropriate videos appearing on the panel at times and as a teacher I need to be careful, a playlist is a good idea. The other could be sharing a google doc with links to newspaper craft videos and sharing the google doc with learners, so they do not open any other links. 

Also I had to practice the newspaper craft activity myself before practicing it with the learners. I remember doing an arts and crafts activity some years back with the learners at Ranaa Child Welfare Foundation as well the SOS Children Village Peshawar - a school for orphan children in Peshawar. Still I had forgotten and had  to practice making a paper bag again. I also learned by watching the various videos on YouTube. A good strategy could have been to create a playlist of different newspaper craft and share the playlist with learners who could access the link on their laptops. That would give each learner an opportunity to create different objects in their own time and space. Since I had access to my laptop only, only a few students could watch videos at a certain time.

In the next lesson the learners were supposed to make picture frames using old newspapers. One group of students came up with amazing picture frames using old newspapers. They folded the newspapers to create rolls and pasted them on a piece of box. They painted the newspaper rolls. After that they made some wonderful drawings about their culture, and pasted them on the picture frames created using newspaper rolls. One of the girls wrote the name of Allah, the other wrote the name of the Prophet PBUH, a girl made a flag of Pakistan, a girl made a scenery. They were all wonderful drawings. I had an old show box at home and I cut the box into different pieces and I gave the learners a piece each for their picture frames. When you look at the picture frames no one can even judge that it has been made using old shoe box sides or pieces. They were made so neatly with a lot of effort by the amazing learners at Ranaa Child Welfare Foundation.

While learning the newspaper craft the learners learned a number of skills including cutting and pasting skills, painting skills, folding the newspaper, cutting the newspaper strips, joining the newspaper strips with a glue, coloring and drawing skills and searching the videos on YouTube. There was a lot of space for creativity , imagination and innovation. Some of the learners came up with amazing objects even without looking at the videos. A learner made a flower from a newspaper, and I did not show a video about making flowers. They made a different design of a boat too without watching the videos. It was a very creative process. The learners had freedom to either make a picture frame or make any other object using the newspapers. They were eager to learn and I was awe-inspired by their enthusiasm and efforts. 

Overall a great learning experience for me and the amazing learners at the Ranaa Child Welfare Foundation. 

Enjoy Reading 🙂

Regards and prayers

Sheeba Ajmal

Note: Some glimpses of the amazing newspaper craft made by the learners. For details click the link below:

https://www.facebook.com/technology4acause