Friday's Art Smarts: Collage in the Style of Eric Carle

Last week, as a part of Daniel's school, we read "The Very Busy Spider". On Monday I showed you the puppets I made to help Daniel narrate, or retell, the story in his own words. Since I introduced those puppets, he's pulled them off the shelf several times in order to tell me the story again. Yay! I love it when things are a hit. Much better than when things are a flop. You know what I'm talking about, right? The activities where you're kids just look at you like you're crazy. Or, even worse, when there's a whole lot of awkward silence while you try to figure out what to do next because you didn't really plan the activity that well to begin with. It's painful. But (yay!) the successes totally make up for the fails. 

We also began a multi-stage collage project last week and finished it up today. What Eric Carle unit is complete without a little Eric Carle style art?

Materials:

card stock (we used white, but the color is up to you)

crayons

tempera paint

paint brushes

paint trays

play dough tools (or other small tools to make scratches into wet paint)

pencil

scissors

glue

Process:

The project begins in the same way as the Sgraffito project we did last summer. The very first step is to let the kids color one piece of card stock. The darker the colors, the better. Also be sure to instruct them to color every last inch of the paper. This is the first step in several; the idea here is to color the paper, not to make a representational drawing. 

The next step is to paint over the crayon color. I squirted a little paint into a tray, gave each kid a brush, and told them to paint the entire paper. They were allowed to use whichever colors they wanted. Again, this is the next step in a multi-stage project; this is not the final piece. The purpose here, like before, is simply to add color. 

Even Silas got in on the act with this project! Although, he just painted...pretty much all his little toddler hands can handle. 

After painting, give your kiddos access to the play dough tools and let them make all kinds of different scratches in their wet paint. We used rollers, rolling pins, plastic knives and forks, and the ends of the paint brush. I didn't give the kids any instruction at this point. Just presented them with the tools and told them the basic idea. They loved it!

Here is Natalie's completed painted piece:

Let the pieces dry. Depending on how much paint your child uses, this could take 30 minutes or all morning. Be patient. You'll need a completely dry piece before moving on to the last step. 

Before starting the next step, we took a look at our story, "The Very Busy Spider". I pointed out a few illustrations, such as the fence posts,

and the rooster.

We talked about how each illustration was made by piecing together basic shapes. We noted that the fence was made out of long, thin rectangles and the rooster was made with a few different shapes, including circles and triangles. 

I then gave scrap paper to the kids and we drew an ice cream cone, a flower, a house, a person, and a tree using only basic shapes. Oh, and a fairy. Of course. 

I also told the kiddos to think about what they wanted their final picture to be. Did they want to make a flower? A tree? A person? We talked about how, sometimes, it's important to plan out and think about what you're going to do before you dive in and do it. 

Daniel decided he wanted to make a spider, inspired, I suppose, by the story. We talked about what kind of shapes he'd need to make a spider and (trust me, I had to really guide him here) came up with a circle for the spider's body and long thin pieces for the legs. 

With Daniel, I really had to help him out. I drew a circle and some lines on the back of his art and gave him a pair of safety scissors. While he cut, I helped him turn his paper so that he could cut out the general shape. 

He also did some cutting on his own ;)

Natalie decided that she would rather piece together a series of shapes to make an abstract collage. Not quite what I had intended for this project, but I decided to step aside and let her do her thing. I really didn't have to help her at all. She first drew some shapes on the back of her painted paper, and then got busy cutting.

They both turned out quite well! I was really proud of Natalie's fine motor skills in action. They've come a long way even since last spring.

Natalie, age 4

And I really loved Daniel's composition. What a great spider!

Daniel, age 3

And Silas, of course, finished his art. Kind of cool that I have three pieces to share with you today!

Silas, age 1

Thanks for reading! Hope you're feeling inspired to go create some beautiful Eric Carle style collage! Let me know if you blog about it - I'd love to see some finished pieces!

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Friday's Art Smarts: Paper Bag Pirate Ships

Happy (belated) Talk Like a Pirate Day, Matey!

In case you missed it, it was yesterday, and it must've been somewhat official because Krispy Kreme was definitely giving away dozens of doughnuts for dressing and talking like a pirate. If that's not official, I don't know what is.

We, however, talk like a pirate most days since pirates happen to be one of Daniel's very favorite things right now. In fact, hardly a day goes by when Daniel isn't singing about going to Bag o' Bones Island. So even though it has absolutely nothing to do with our learning theme this week, I couldn't let the day pass without some sort of a celebration.

Materials:

1. brown paper lunch bags

2. stuffing material (we used magazine pages)

3. stapler

4. card stock cut into triangles

5. toothpicks

6. packaging tape

7. tempera paints

8. paint brushes

9. (optional) puffy paint

Process:

Project Ahoy!

Start by stuffing the paper bag full of your stuffing material. I told my kids to ball up the paper, but not too tight. Stuff until you've got a nice, full "ship."

After the kids stuffed, I folded the open end down into a sort of triangle and stapled the bag closed.

Then we opened our paints and got decorating. I just squirted a few drops of paint onto a little palette for each of them and they were allowed to brush and mix at will. I did not give them water for rinsing and instead told them to just wipe the brush dry on their palette before choosing a new color.

They painted their sails:

And their ships:

After the tempera paint dried, I opened the puffy paints and let them further decorate.

After that, we needed to let the ships dry overnight. They got a little carried away with the puffy paint. Arg!

This morning, we added the sails by pushing a toothpick into the top of the bag, positioning the sail in front of it, and taping it down. I also added a bit of tape between the card stock and the top of the bag to stabilize it.

Ta da!

Shiver me timbers - it was quick, easy, simple, and fun!

Let's go find some treasure!

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Friday's Art Smarts: Fingerprint Ants

Well, you know what they say...a day late and a dollar short.

That's only half true here. I'm not claiming this project was a dollar short, though it is a few days late (sorry about that). It didn't quite go as planned, but I liked how the kids took an idea and ran with it. Just did their own thing. Sometimes their own thing is pretty cool ;)

The idea behind this project couldn't be more simple. Give the kids black and red paint. Review the parts of an ant. Let them dip their fingers in the paint. Make an ant. Or two...or lots. Once the paint dries, use a black marker to draw in the legs (after reviewing how many legs an ant has), the antennae, and the eyes.  Simple. Easy peasy.

Right?

Wrong. At least, for my kiddos. Here's what happened.

Materials:

1. Tempera paint in the colors of your choice (we used black and red)

2. plates on which to spread the paint

3. art paper

4. black marker

Process:

Squirt two small puddles of paint on the plate, one in each color. Show the kids how to dip their fingers and make fingerprint ants on art paper by connecting three fingerprints together. I learned that the adult (you) might need to be very specific during this step. Because it you're not, this might happen:

We ended up with a whole lot less ant and a whole lot more Morse Code. Once I became more involved in the supervision they both seemed to catch on...a little. I think they just loved making fingerprints. Why stop at three when you can make four, five or six?

If you do happen to get a few good "ants," then wait until your paint dries and move on to the next step. Or, you could stop here and admire your series of polka dots.  

Give those ants some legs and antennae.

By this point, I had completely let go of any idea that this was going to look like what I had envisioned. And it started to be fun to see what they turned their dots into.

Some of Daniel's ants had really looooong legs :D

Ready to see their finished pieces?

Daniel, age 3

Notice that he didn't stop with black marker. Once he got a hold of a red crayon, it was all over from there. 

Natalie, age 4

If you look carefully, you'll be able to make out some princess stamps. Because what is art without a stamped castle in the corner?

Thanks for bearing with us. Sometimes art projects don't go exactly as planned, but they're always a lot of fun!

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Friday's Art Smarts: Appearing Dinosaurs (and a little something extra)

Today's project had a lot of potential. A LOT. When I saw the tutorial over at this website a couple weeks ago, I was like, "Yes! This is so, so cool. Done." And it is. But I think there are a few tips which we did not follow, but from which you can certainly benefit. And if you listen to this advice, I really do think this project is way cool. 

Okay,

Materials:

blank, white paper (we used computer paper)

print outs of dinosaur skeletons

white crayons or oil pastels

watercolor paints and paint brushes

Process:

This is a crayon resist project. You may have done this before with your kids. It's a pretty neat technique; basically, you let the kids draw a picture with crayons and then they paint over their picture with paints. We used watercolors today. Since the crayons are waxy, they resist the paint (giving the technique its name), and the drawings will come through. 

So, step one (I completed this step for my kids since they're so young. Older children, maybe age 7 and up, could complete this step on their own): trace a dinosaur skeleton onto your white paper using the print outs as a guide. 

I used a white crayon for this step, and while it worked, I would suggest going for a white oil pastel instead. My crayon did resist the paint some, but in the end, it was a little difficult to see the skeletons. I wasn't sure if it was because of the crayon or the amount of water Daniel used, but just to be on the safe side, we'll be using pastels for projects like this in the future. 

I completed this step at 10:00 last night after a very long day and I was tired. So, sadly, I didn't get any pictures for you. Bad blogger. 

Step two: give the "blank" pieces of paper to the kids along with the paints and let them loose! It was so much fun to hear the excitement in their voice when the surprise began to show up :)

At first I was really happy with how well they were turning out.

Then, things went south. I'm wondering if a lot of it had to do with how much water the kids used? Daniel definitely went back to the water over and over again (more than he needed to), and sometimes skipped the paint entirely and just brushed water onto his paper. We're working on that. But the end result was a massive puddle with a little washed out paint right in the middle of his picture. And while it dried in relatively little time, it also seemed to make the skeleton a lot less vivid.

Daniel, age 3

See what I mean? You can kind of see it, but not well. 

I'd love to try this project again with oil pastels and with a little more adult supervision. If I do, I'll post an update.

The good news, though, is that the kids had fun. It didn't matter to them that the dinosaur skeletons were a little washed out. Kids love putting paint on paper, and they're not very picky about the little things ;)

Update! I let Natalie try this project after she came home from school and cautioned her against using too much water. I told her to get her brush wet, but only just, and to really load it up with color (most of the colors were still wet from this morning). The result? MUCH better!

Natalie, age 4

So, I guess white crayon actually does work pretty well. The trick is to not transfer too much water to your paper...and to take the art away from the child before it becomes a wet puddle!

Okay. Since our project this week was pretty basic, and since I have another cool activity that I wanted to post, I'm combining them. Two birds with one stone, man. I'm all about some efficiency. 

Thursday's Dino Dig

One of the things I had planned for this week (the one thing I knew I wanted us to do when I planned this week back in mid-August), was a Dino Dig. When I happened to mention it to Daniel, he loved the idea and has been asking me about it ever since. So he was excited when I told him that the day had finally come.

All week, we've been reading dinosaur books, and one that I mentioned a couple days ago, "Digging Up Dinosaurs", by Aliki, has been particularly helpful. We brought that book as well as another non-fiction book with us to the park to use as a reference guide during the dig.

Materials:

Non-fiction dinosaur books

Dino Dig journal page (found at Adventures in Mommydom) and clipboard

dry pasta

digging tools (we used a small paint brush, a bottle brush, and a cheese spreader)

crayons

toy dinosaurs for small world play afterwards

Process:

When we got to the playground, I sent Daniel off to play while I set up the dig. He did come back after a few minutes. I kept encouraging him to go play some more because I didn't want him to watch me set it up - I was afraid he'd be less excited to dig up the dinosaur bones if he watched me put them in the ground. Turns out, that didn't matter at all. Phew!

I used one of the books to help me recreate the dinosaur skeletons using bits of pasta.

I had a lot of fun with this part!

I did forget to give poor T-Rex a tail. Oh well. Maybe, I thought later, he lost it in a fight. And that's how he died.

After I recreated the skeletons, I covered them up with a bit of sand and pine needles. Then I sat down with Daniel and we reviewed a few things. We looked at pictures of the tools that are used to excavate the fossils and I showed Daniel his tools. We looked at pictures of workers brushing the sand away and I reminded him that he would need to be very gentle. And we practiced brushing the sand away from a buried stick. After that, I led him over to the dig site.

As soon as he saw the first "bone," he got really excited. And right to work.

He brushed and dug. I encouraged him to used his hands, too, but he preferred that paint brush.

We kept a book open in front of him so that he could identify the skeletons. Amazingly, he chose the right one. It really was amazing. First of all, they were made out of pasta. And secondly, as soon as he started digging, the bones went everywhere. I think it was more of a lucky guess than a scientific identification.

After the dig, I gave him his journal page to complete. I read each section to him and he drew the pictures:

And then it was time to play!

But really, it was all play. At dinner last night, he declared that his favorite part of the day was doing his school stuff. You know that made me happy :)

When the kids are a little older, we'll revisit dinosaurs and if we do another dig, I'll probably invest in some small, model dinosaur skeletons. Another mom was telling me about a company that makes them. But for our purposes here, the dry pasta was perfect. I'm not sure that it was any less real for him, and we weren't worried about identifying bones or anything that specific. 

All in all, total success! Yes! I love it when that happens!

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Friday's Art Smarts: Red Rubber Ball

Today's project actually comes from a fantastic book called "Enriching the Curriculum with Art Experiences". I love this book. I bought it when I was teaching 4th grade years ago and have used it regularly ever since. It is definitely geared toward elementary aged kids, but many of the lessons can be pared down to suit preschoolers.  

Today's project is one of those. It's very simple and really gets their imaginations going. 

They book titled it "Red Magic Ball," but every time I think about it I think of that song, "Red Rubber Ball". Remember that? It was made famous by a group called The Cyrkle, but (here's a little piece of trivia for you) it was actually written by Paul Simon. And since Simon and Garfunkel happens to be one of the greatest bands of all time, I'm changing the name of this project accordingly. 

Red Rubber Ball

Materials:

red rubber ball

art paper

red construction paper circles

glue (Elemers would be perfect, but since we are out of Elmers I used a craft glue)

pencils

Sharpie marker

paint brushes

water colors

one enthusiastic child (or two. or three.)

Process:

Start with a mini lesson on shapes. After going over the basics, hold up the ball and ask your child to identify the shape (Most will probably call it a circle. I did take a few minutes to tell them that it's actually a sphere and we talked about the difference between circles and spheres. But going over this point is up to you. For this project, the emphasis will be on circles). 

After that, explain that you are going to play a game. You'll roll the ball back and forth, and each time a person gets the ball, they have to think of something that is a circle before rolling the ball to the next person (clock, tire, plate, eyes, etc.). After we completed this project, I thought it would have been fun to do this with the game Hot Potato, except instead of getting "out," the child would have to name a circular object before starting the next round.

After the game, give each child a red circle and ask them to think of something in the shape of a circle (it can be something that was already named). Then have each child glue their red circle on the paper and make that circle into the object they were thinking of. 

Natalie immediately decided that she wanted to turn her circle into a person's head.

Daniel started drawing aimlessly at first, but when he saw what Natalie was doing, he also went the person route. That's the only downside to doing art as a group. It's pretty common for young children to copy each other's ideas. It was neat to see each child's interpretation, though. Although they chose the same subject matter, their pictures turned out very differently. 

After drawing in pencil, I outlined their work with Sharpie. Alternatively, you could give each child a Sharpie to draw with. I'm a little hesitant to do that for obvious reasons. Just throwing it out there.

Then break out your paints! This is always my favorite part. I love watching their pictures come to life.

Natalie chose to place her person in a living room, complete with a couch, a coffee table, and a picture hanging on the wall. 

When I asked Daniel where his person was standing, he said that his person was just going to be a decoration. Fair enough.

I love watching them paint. They're so focused. It's one of the quietest parts of our day. 

I really love how they turned out. Especially, as I mentioned above, how different they are from each other:

Daniel, age 3

Natalie, age 4

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Friday's Art Smarts: Homemade Looms and Weaving

Handmade Looms and First Weaving Project

Today's project was inspired by a tutorial I found over at Buggy and Buddy. She used Popsicle sticks to make small, homemade looms for weaving, and that was my original plan as well. But after raiding our craft closet for 10 minutes and realizing to my dismay that we didn't have any, I changed the plan. 

We'd use sticks instead. We have a lot of trees in our yard (and vines). Finding a few sticks should be no problem. And it wasn't. It took all of 5 minutes to find what we needed.

I really wanted today's project to happen outside, but:

It started raining. Boo.

After collecting some sticks and cutting them to size, I headed back indoors. 

The sticks that I found actually came from one of our truly annoying, won't die for anything, thorny vines. Although they were strong and reasonably straight, they had sharp little thorns all over them. So after bringing them inside and clipping off the sharp point, I sanded them the rest of the way down with a bit of used sand paper. 

Then I told each of the kids to choose four sticks.

Sorry for the poor quality of these photos. My camera's on the fritz and I'm currently using my phone to take pictures.

Process:

Lay out four sticks to create a square. Once you're satisfied with the shape, use a hot glue gun to glue one corner together. Then cut a long length of yarn and wrap thoroughly around that corner, securing with glue every few wraps. 

Do the same thing with the opposite corner, and then glue the two pieces together (wrapping each corner as you go) to make the final square. Make as many frames as you have kids (if you don't want to hear them arguing over who gets to use it first!).

Then cut another long length of yarn to wrap around the frame. My kids both commented on how it looked like a harp and tried to "play" it once this step was complete ;)

Let that dry for a few minutes. Use this time to cut out several strips of scrap fabric (as in the picture above).

Now you're ready - and I bet your kids are, too - to weave! 

I couldn't believe how quickly the kids caught on. I thought I would have to hover over them and guide them with each new strip of fabric, but after the first one, they were on a roll. And the actual weaving took very little time.

Over, under, over under. Daniel spoke the directions out loud as he worked.

It's always fun for me to see the creative juices flowing. Daniel stuck with red until there were no more red strips. Then he chose another dark color. And Natalie alternated between dark and light colors.

Little hands.

Finished tapestries:

Natalie

Age 4

Daniel

Age 3

At first I was going to try to figure out a way to save each piece. But I quickly realized that that would be a major headache. How would I save it? Glue? Adding stitches? And wouldn't it just fall apart as I cut it off the loom? 

Perhaps we can start saving pieces when they get older and learn how to really make a tight weave. But for now, I think we'll just enjoy each one for a little while before taking it down so they can make another piece. Or we could make this sort of a busy bag activity, like the lacing cards. That way they can weave and disassemble as many times as they like. 

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