The fifth grade recently completed a project that adorned the walls of the castle that decorated the gym for our Winter Festival: beautiful “stained glass” windows out of plastic and tissue paper. We looked at images of mythological creatures that were popular subjects during the Middle Ages. The students chose to either do a drawing based on that, or another Winter or holiday theme. Starting with a sketch, the students traced their image onto a piece of plastic sheeting and then painted the back with acrylic. This reverse-painting method creates clean lines and shining colors to help give the illusion of glass. Then they glued tissue paper behind the painting to complete the effect of different colored panes of glass. The finished windows were mounted in a black frame that has a signature pointed top, characteristic of the Medieval style.

Click here to view the windows!