Ask Ollie
Torn Paper Corn Mosaic
Here's one to try together!
Rip, stick and count your way to a colorful fall corn cob, one paper kernel at a time!
Reviewed by our team.
Safety first
- Torn paper and glue are not for eating: stay close to under 3s
What you need
- Paper, 2 or 3 sheets each of yellow, orange, red and brown
- Paper, 1 or 2 sheets of green or tan
- Glue stick, 1
- Pencil, 1
- Paper, 1 plain sheet per corn cob
How to do it
Grown-up prep: Gather fall colored paper, green or tan paper, a glue stick and a pencil. Keep an eye on little ones so paper bits and glue stay out of mouths.
- Draw a big oval corn cob with two husk leaves at the bottom.
- Rip yellow, orange, red and brown paper into tiny bits.
- Sort your bits into little piles by color.
- Rub glue on the top of the cob and press bits in a row. Ask: How many kernels do you think a real corn cob has?
- Keep going, row by row, until your whole cob is full.
- Rip green or tan paper into long strips for husks.
- Glue the husk strips over the leaves at the bottom.
- Count every kernel on your finished cob! Ask: Did you guess close? A real cob usually has hundreds of kernels!
- Make another one for every plate, or show your family!
Play it again
- Rainbow corn: use every color you can find for a magical cob.
- Pattern race: pick a color pattern and see who can finish a row first without breaking it.
- Guess and check: everyone guesses the kernel count before counting, and the closest guess wins.
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