I taught them to use their paintbrush to put glue on just a small area of the wax paper, apply tissue paper, then brush more glue overtop of the tissue paper. Some students did so and applied the tissue paper totally random while others created patterns with the pieces.
** I hit a very small bump with teaching this project when I realized that not only would it be quite difficult for the students to successfully glue the construction paper onto their finished tissue paper collages, but that the glue stick glue didn't stick very well. So, as any teacher would, I decided to have the students do all of the cutting, but I ended up glueing all of the construction paper cut outs down myself. I still used glue sticks, but I realized that once glued down, they needed to be weighted, so I stacked books on top until they were fully dry.**
We also spent one day practicing folding paper into 4's and cutting out shapes from the sides and corners. We practiced making 'snowflakes' as well. After practicing, I gave students the black construction paper and had them cut out a symmetrical, fun design. To be honest, students got a bit frazzled because the construction paper was hard to cut through but once they finished and opened up their 'snowflake,' they were full of joy!
I ended up having to glue all of these pieces on too which was fine.
The end result of this project is beautiful. Especially when hung in a window so that the sun can shine through.
I will definitely teach this project again next year but I have to figure out a few things to make it go a bit more smooth.