DLTK's Crafts for Kids
Scottish Thistle Paper Craft

This thistle is a simple cut and paste paper craft that can be done for an autumn theme, a shapes theme, a colors (purple and green) theme or a Scottish theme.

The Scots thistle is the national emblem of Scotland and is also the oldest national flower in the world. This pretty, but prickly weed grows throughout the countryside of Scotland.

Legend has it that a group of vikings (Norsemen) was sneaking up on some Scotsmen who were resting nearby. One of the vikings stepped in a thistle patch with bare feet and his cries of, "AU! AU!" alerted the Scots warriors to the danger they were in, saving them from attack.

A bit of shapes practice: before starting the craft, have the children sort the pieces into types of shape (triangle, rectangle and circle). You can also encourage them to count the pieces.

Materials:

• something to color with if using the B&W version,
• scissors,
• glue,
• paper,
• printer

Instructions:

• Print out the thistle template of choice. There's a version with a face and one without.
• Color (if using the black and white version of the craft) the large triangle pink or purple and the other pieces green.
• Cut out the thistle pieces.
• Glue the thistle together in the following order:
  • circle on the large purple triangle
  • stem on the circle
  • each leaf together by gluing three same-sized triangles together and then the narrower triangle pointing the other direction
  • each leaf onto the stem
  • You can print out the thistle outline for the children to use as a guide -- gluing the shapes onto the outline.

Templates:

• Close the template window after printing to return to this screen.
• Set page margins to zero if you have trouble fitting the template on one page (FILE, PAGE SETUP or FILE, PRINTER SETUP in most browsers).

Scottish Thistle Template (no face)   (color)   or   (B&W)

Scottish Thistle Template (face)        (color)   or   (B&W)

Scottish Thistle Outline template

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