Art Corner #4: Fish !

Well I will start with the crazy one. Do you see what I see? Yes this is a fish that my preschool kids painted (a real one) and then we took prints of the fish. It was really fun, stinky, interesting, and memorable. This one we did after we read The Rainbow Fish book. We used tissue paper, crayons, markers, colored squares, and of course shiny silver paper. My goal with art is that no ones art looks alike. I think with this you can see how they are able to be creative and create a masterpiece.This one is first a stenciled fish that they colored and then I cut it out for them. Then we glued in on a watercolor page that they had done earlier in the week.

Art Corner, Idea #3

Painting with straws can be oh so fun! Put some paint down on their paper, and then let them use their breath to make the paint spread into nice art work. This art project is perfect for learning how colors mixed will change colors..This is the finished product!

Art Corner, Idea #2

Crayon Meltings!

I have listed an idea about this before under fall, but this is how it looks with out the fall leaves. You will need Wax Paper, An Iron, Crayon Shavings, A Heavy Towel, and Iron Board.This is how I set it up to let the kids create their picture. Then after they are done creating, I do the heating, but I let them stand on a chair and watch the melting. I like to use an old Iron and towel for this project. I also like to use another old towel to cover my iron board with- just in case. The picture goes on top of the towel on the iron board, and then the other towel goes on top. Then you slowly heat up the picture. It takes lots of heat to go through the towel, so it might be a little slow. This is what it looks like when done.

Art Corner Idea #1:

I have saved most of the creative art that I have done as a preschool teacher, or that my kids have done. I usually throw away anything that looks like a teacher instructed or that it is something that all the kids have exactly the same way. I think it is so important to train their little brains that their art is from their brain and it doesn't have to all be the same. So from an earlier post I talked about how I am scanning all my scrapbooks so that if there was a fire or flood, I would still have them. So I got to the first year I started teaching preschool, and I decided to start sharing the ideas I have used. I hope you enjoy them. I have enjoyed looking at all my projects I did with my kids. I am sure glad I kept them.

Today's idea is to let your children paint with Washable Paint and Feathers! It looks like this when done.

Valentine's Fingerpainting!

Need:
Strawberry Yogurt
Big Paper shaped into a heart

That's it! Let your child make a big heart for someone that they love, by finger painting. At the end they can lick their fingers and eat the leftover yogurt. Let dry and then give to that special someone.

Another fun idea is to let them finger paint on the table or high chair and then when they do a cool design, place the paper down carefully and pull it back up, to make a print. That way you can do more than one.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Karo Syrup Painting

I think painting with Karo Syrup is one of the coolest looking finished product you could ever do. If you are drawing a picture and then painting check out this link and you can see all the steps.

www.eighteen25.blogspot.com/2010/05/summer-craft-ideas-part-five.html



When I did this to get my degree, we did it preschool style. We used thick white paper plates, and we would put drops of Karo syrup all over the plate. Then we added food coloring all over the plate. The kids then would move the plate and make swirls and watch the colors change colors. When dry, we cut off the rim of the plate and we had an awesome painting.



When painting with Karo Syrup I suggest going to the dollar store and buying brushes that you can throw away. Or you can go preschool style and just hold the plate and blend. Remember that Karo syrup if gets warm will stick to everything and will melt and make a mess. I made this mistake of putting the art in my binder and leaving it in the car. It stuck to everything. Hanging on a fridge, would be perfect though.

Ripped Art!

My son brought this picture that he had done from school. When I got my degree, I had to do a whole picture using ripped paper. It turned out really cool. I thought this little picture turned out so well, and it would be really easy to do. I am not big on everyone making the same picture, so I would probably have different shaped trunks, and green leaves as well. I like that not one could be the same, because it depends on where you glue. So try this at home, preschool, nursery, or where ever.

Few Reminders & One New Website!

1. PTA Reflections Contest: The theme this year is... Together We Can. Don't forget to check when you need to turn it in. Your child can do literature, visual arts, photography, dance, musical composition, film/video, theatre, and 3D art. You can get the specific guidelines at your local school. Each child gets a little prize or treat for doing it and it gets presented at an awards night. Everyone is honored. It is really good for their little self esteems.

2. It is almost October! Time to figure out Halloween costumes if you haven't already. Ebay, Savers, DI, etc. get pretty picked over the closer it gets to Halloween.

3. Fun Conference Packets for LDS Conference. Go to this website. They are really fun and current! www.scriptures4kids.com/activites-downloads/general-conference.html If you are going to do it though, don't wait until Saturday. Get it printed now, while it is not stressful!

4. Life is so hard for kids these days. I have been trying some simple things, that hopefully help them have better days. You might be already doing these things. When my kids come home from school I am always so stressed out that I was not doing these.

A. Smile while greeting them when they come in the house, or the car.
B. Give them a love and tell them how glad you are they are back.
C. Stop everything and pay attention to how their day was. (This is a real hard one for me. How do you stop when everyday seems like a whirl wind? But they really don't feel important unless you stop)
D. Make sure that you say at least 20 positive things to them after school and through out the night. For every negative comment you need to provide 10 positive comments. That goes for all the negative comments they are hearing at school as well. Maybe I should up it to 50!

Anyway have a great day and hopefully something in this post helps you somehow!

Colored Noodles for Art!

Warning: This is NOT an edible activity and should be made with adults only and then let the kids use them for the project.

So it is VERY easy!

1. First buy noodles at store. You will want different shapes, different sizes, etc.
2. You will also need to buy Rubbing Alcohol and food coloring.
3. put rubbing alcohol in jars about 1/2 way. Add a couple of drops of food coloring. Mix. Do this for each color.
4. Add noodles into jars.
5. Let sit over night.
6. Take out and dry on cookie sheets.
7. When dry put in bag or bucket.

Design an Ice Sculpture

Fill a plastic food container with water and let it freeze over night. Fill spray bottles with water, salt water, or water with food coloring. Let your child create an ice sculpture by squirting the block of ice to melt it in certain areas. For older children, you may want to fill some bottles with salt water and some with plain water. Let them experiment to guess which bottles contain the salt water and which do not.

If you live by me, this will not be a good activity to do, until it quits raining! I thought Summer was supposed to be Hot!

Sun Painting!

Your child can do some art without using any dyes or paints. Early in the morning on a sunny day, have her arrange opaque objects, on a sheet of colored construction paper. Late in the afternoon, remove the objects to reveal a print.

The sun will have faded the exposed construction paper, but the paper that was beneath the objects will still be its original color – showing the shapes of the objects that were used for the artwork.

I thought this sounded really fun for kids, we are going to try it............Today!

Colored Rice!

If you went to college you learned lots of useful things. When you choose a degree in early childhood, you learn a lot of crazy things......like how to color rice.

So here goes!

1. Take a freezer bag (needs to be a freezer bag because they are heavier).

2. Fill it with white uncooked rice.

3. Peel the wrapper off one crayon and stick it in the bag.

4. Microwave for 1 minute. Yes Microwave!

5. Take out and start to kneed it (keep bag closed, and watch out it will be HOT)

6. If crayon isn't melted enough put in for 30 seconds and kneed again.

7. The crayon color will melt onto the rice and then you can do a project with your kids.

So what could we do with colored rice: One idea is to fill in a bottle and do one of those I- Spy things. Another idea is to take glue and glue large amounts onto card stock. Lastly you could take a bottle and use lots of colors and do something like a layered sand bottle thing! Anyway I remember sitting in the campus kitchen with my professor teaching me this. She was a really funny lady and I have lots of memories of her teaching me CRAZY things.

Have a fun day!

Fall Leaves

One of my favorite things to do with my kids is go to the canyon (or a park) and pick pretty colored leaves. Then place them on wax paper and do a design with them. Then give them yellow, orange, and red crayon shavings and let them decorate their leaves. Then I put another wax paper on top, put a towel on top of that (at least two layers thick), and I take a iron and melt the crayon through the layers. It takes awhile but when you are done it is so pretty. I have had preschool moms frame it and put it above their beds. Anyway kids love it and parents too! Have a fun day!

Church Coloring Pages

O.K. I found a really cute site that has really cute coloring pages of the bible stories. I thought you might want to check them out and add them to your files.

http://www.sundayschoolprintables.com/

This link is also listed on the side under FHE stuff

Sorry!

Sorry I haven't updated as much as I used to. I will try to get back in the hang of it. Anyway I found Two French sites that are pretty good.

The second site has lots more artist pictures than the first, but both sites have lots of great coloring pictures. The second site has artists like Brueghel, Cassatt, Cezanne, Degas, da Vinci, Matisse, Monet, Renoir, Picasso.... (80+ pictures to color)
The first site has 16 pages to color (well, more than that, but 16 famous paintings to color in). This site is the one that has TONS of coloring pages! Click on the top of the page "Tous les coloriages" It means all the coloring pages.
If you get to a page that says "Decoupages" on the top--click on that link, too! It has a bunch of paper dolls on it. Paper dolls for boys (garcon), paper dolls for girls (fille) and trains to build out of paper. It was a great site to run across!
http://www.hugolescargot.com/coloriages-art-peintres/coloriage-peintres-peintures.htm
http://www.momes.net/coloriages/coloriages-peintres.html

Hope you enjoy this!

The Art Lesson!

I love Tommie dePoala because of a book he has called the Art Lesson.

THE ART LESSON, written and illustrated by Tomie dePaola, was published in 1989. "Tommy knows he wants to be an artist when he grows up. He draws pictures wherever he goes. His family hangs them all around the house and his friends think he's the best artist ever. Tommy can't wait to start school and have real art lessons with Mrs. Bowers, who wears a blue smock and carries a box of colored chalks when she goes into the classroom. But Tommy is surprised and dismayed when he gets to school and finds out that there are 'rules' to follow. He must use the school crayons and not his new box of sixty-four different colors. And, instead of doing a picture from his imagination, he's supposed to copy Mrs. Bowers' drawing up on the blackboard. But Mrs. Bowers is quick to recognize that in Tommy she has a talented and original young artist, and together they reach a fair compromise, which allows Tommy the freedom to imagine and create. A wonderfully perceptive picture book about growing up and keeping one's individuality."

If you don't have this one, I recommend it.