The Pantry Goods

creative spaces, tips, and extra goodies

 

February 9, 2011  by

Finger Painting and Getting to Know the Studio

The new mini-session has brought a whole new group of children to the studio. Two of the four classes (a 2s class and a 1s class) are mostly newcomers so we started off the session with finger painting. I love to offer finger painting to new students because it is one of the messiest, simplest activities and is a great introduction to the qualities of tempera paint. The kids also learn that the studio is a place for messy exploration and open-ended creativity! I first offered the children bowls of paint and encouraged them to scoop the paint onto their glossy finger-paint paper.
For children who were reluctant to get their fingers into the paint, I gave them a tool (a popsicle stick or small whisk) to jump start their exploration.


I slowly began to bring out more items to use with the paints that would encourage the kids to get their hands messy- like these mardi-gras beads!
Shaking glitter from a salt shaker was another exciting addition to the painting experience.

The children were also invited to move around the studio and investigate the interesting materials on the shelf.
The 1s class took the opportunity to toddle around and check out the studio, while the 2s class was content getting messy at the table!
After a while, everyone moved around to work at the easels and the collaborative canvas.


For the twos group, I introduced bubble wrap prints towards the end of class. The children used foam rollers to cover the bubble wrap with paint, then pressed it (paint side down) onto a piece of paper.
Another fun use for the bubble wrap was to make “jumping prints” on the ground. The kids used the same rolling paint technique to cover the bubble wrap, placed it onto a piece of paper on the ground, and jumped on the bubble wrap over and over to create a popping sound.
Then they peeled up the wrap to discover their jumping print!
All of the messy discoveries eventually led to clean up time in the water table- which is sometimes just as fun as making the mess!

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February 2, 2011  by

Drawing and Watercolor Resists

For the last week of this mini- session, we explored drawing and watercolor painting. The 2s classes began with a still life of an aloe plant. I wanted to introduce the children to the concept of drawing an object that they can see in front of them, but I also wanted to find something that was fairly simple in form. I chose the aloe plant because it is made up of mostly simple lines. I encouraged the children to touch the plant and look at the shape/lines of the plant before drawing.
Then I offered the children black Sharpie markers (calling them “special grown-up markers”) to try to draw the aloe plant. I’m not sure if any of the children really understood the concept of drawing the plant (some of the children thought I meant to draw on the plant) , but it was still a fun exercise to get them used to the idea.
For the 1s class, I offered the children oil pastels and encouraged them to make marks on the paper.

After our drawing sessions, I brought out a tray and liquid watercolor paints for each child. The oil pastels and sharpie markers will show through the watercolor to create a “resist” painting.


After a little while of painting with brushes, I brought out eye-droppers to use with the watercolors. They take a little practice before mastering, but once the children figured them out they proved to be very interesting!




To further the exploration of watercolor, I offered the children “bleeding” tissue paper and cups of water to make their own watercolor. When the tissue paper gets wet, it bleeds the color into the water- then the wad of tissue can be used to paint with!


Of course all the children eventually wanted more water, so I gave them their own squeeze bottles- this incited the investigation of mixing colorful water with a variety of materials: glitter, glue, mixing tools, cars, necklaces, etc.



It was really interesting to see how the colors in the water reacted to movement and different materials.



When the children asked for more water, I gave them sponges and showed them how to re-use their water by soaking it up and squeezing it back into a cup or bottle.

The Wednesday class asked to use the spray bottles like the previous week when they “washed” the chair seats.
Soon enough, they were washing the chairs again!
The children also worked at the easels with oil pastels and watercolors.



Towards the end of class, we continued our exploration of watercolor outside. For the 1s class, we spread bleeding tissue paper over white watercolor paper. The children squeezed water onto the tissue paper to see the colors bleed onto the white background.

The 2s classes used spray bottles filled with liquid watercolor to paint the white canvas… among other things!


The batiks are finally dry! Here’s one of the finished pieces.
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January 26, 2011  by

Exploring Clay

For our third class of the session we focused on clay work. I first offered the children a few tools to roll, poke, or shape the clay.

Many of the children have worked with clay here in previous sessions and immediately knew what tools they wanted to use. Soon they were at the shelf retrieving trucks and animals to roll and stomp in the clay.
We talked about how you can pinch off parts of the clay and roll it in your hand to make balls or coils. I offered them toothpicks to use with their clay to continue our exploration of building up from last session. I also offered the children a tray of little “treasures” to decorate their clay (this included beads, buttons, rhinestones and googly-eyes).


The children in the 1s class were not quite sure about manipulating the clay with their hands, but they were very excited about decorating the clay!

Sometimes it’s nice to take a break from working at the table…


After working with clay for a while, it can begin to dry out, so I always offer the children some water and a sponge to moisten their clay.
Sometimes it can get really wet and the kids will soak up the excess water with the sponge or an eye-dropper.
After working with fabric last week, many of the kids wanted to cut and add fabric to their clay work- an interesting new combination!

And sometimes a bowl is needed for all that water!


In one of the 2s classes, the children asked for the spray bottles and glue. They began to mix the glue and water together which began to drip onto their chairs. This gave one of the kids the idea of spraying the chair with watercolor, then cleaning it off with a sponge!
Pretty soon all of the kids were “cleaning” the chairs.

I thought it was interesting how the chairs suddenly became a new surface for their art experiments (good thing these materials are washable!)
At the end of the 2s class, the kids painted the batiks that they had started last week. Next week I’ll show you the final results.

Yay for clean up time!
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January 22, 2011  by

1s Fabric and Sand Collage

For the second week of the 1s class the children explored collage through glue and fabric. At this age, the focus is mostly on learning how to squeeze the glue- which is great for fine motor development! Squeezing glue is hard work for little hands, but it is so rewarding when the glue begins to dribble out… especially the colored glue!
After much glue practice, the children found new items to add to their collage. They especially enjoyed scooping colored sand and dumping it onto their collages. When the sand dries in the glue, it creates a rough texture to compliment the smooth fabric.


The joy of learning from an older child!
The weather has been warming up, which makes for great water/wash up time at the end of class!
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January 18, 2011  by

Working with Fabric and Glue

This week we focused on fabric and glue. I first set out a simple collage project with scraps of fabric and white glue. The children all began to carefully glue down their fabric scraps to the paper using various methods. Some glued on top of the fabric…
some glued all over the paper, then placed the fabric down…
…while others decided to stack the fabric with glue.
After this first introduction to fabric collage I soon brought out colored glue. which adds a new design element (and is much more exciting than white glue!).


As the kids made their way around the studio, they went to the easels to paint and then to the shelf to pick out more items to use with their collages.

Returning from the shelf, the children brought back glitter, animals, cars, brushes, and even scissors for cutting the fabric!




To add a new texture to the mix, I brought the children some colored sand to scoop onto their glue.




At the end of class, I brought out one more project to continue our investigation of glue and fabric… the makings for a glue batik! I saw this project on the Artful Parent and was eager to try it out in class. The first step is to use blue gel glue (a non toxic school glue) to create a design on a white piece of fabric. We will wait for the glue to dry then next week the kids will paint the fabric. Once the paint dries, I will soak them in water and the glue will peel off, leaving their original design white. I can’t wait to see how they turn out!


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