The Pantry Goods

creative spaces, tips, and extra goodies

 

May 18, 2010  by

Sculpture Building

This week, for a 3-D experience, we worked on sculpture building using re-purposed items. I offered the children a base for their work, glue, and various 3-D materials that I got from SCRAP (Scrounger’s Center for Reusable Art Parts) in San Francisco. This is a great project to do when you have a bunch of random items around the house that you would otherwise throw away (wood scraps, broken jewelry, old keys, bottle caps, etc.)
The toddlers work is more flat like a collage, but as they get older they will begin to experiment more with stacking and building.



For most children, the gluing is the most exciting part! In these early stages of art class, I try not to limit their use of glue because it is part of their creative learning experience. As they continue to use and learn about glue they will eventually learn how to self-regulate as well.


After most of the building was done, I offered the children smaller collage parts and glitter to add to their work.



In two different classes the children discovered the scissors and became very interested in cutting.



The older class missed out last week on the floor mural, so I brought it outside towards the end of class for them to work on.
For the next two classes, I hung the mural on the wall and offered the kids rollers and scrub brushes to paint with.


With each class, the canvas gets more and more interesting!
I hope to see you next week at the spring art show!
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May 11, 2010  by

Floor Mural and Mother’s Day Gifts

Finally… a full week of warmth and sunshine! I took advantage of this beautiful weather and held our classes outside this week. We began class with a group floor mural, which we painted using some exciting new techniques. I first demonstrated the “bouncy nylon brushes” (hosiery filled with dried beans and rice) that make interesting prints when bounced on the canvas.The children dipped the bouncy nylons onto the plates of paint, then bounced them like a yo-yo to paint the canvas. This was a little tricky for the toddlers, but still a lot of fun!



After introducing the bouncy nylons, I offered the children other tools to use with the paint: Large scrub brushes, whiskers, paint rollers, balls- and trucks of course!



Along with the mural, I placed an easel outside for a different painting experience.




Being outside meant that the sand and water tables were accessible- and therefore very enticing!
To finish our Mother’s day projects from last week, I brought out a tub of organic potting soil, the finished pots, and a selection of flowers. Each child retrieved a shovel from the sand box and got started planting their flowers.

After potting, I gave the children a squeeze bottle to water their flowers.



Squeezing the bottles became an extended activity!
Some of the finished flower pots…


Happy Mother’s Day to all you mamas out there!

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May 3, 2010  by

New Painting Projects

Mother’s day is coming up so we began class this week with a spring themed gift-making project for all the moms. If you weren’t in class… don’t look! It’s a surprise!The first step of the project is painting a clay pot (which I got from the local garden store). When they dry, I’ll coat them with a sealer and then they’ll be ready for planting our flowers.


In the toddler classes, the children painted their pot little by little, as they looked for other objects to paint. I decided to bring out the next activity (potato prints!) to work on simultaneously. To prepare the potatoes, I cut each one in half and carved a simple shape into the top to create a stamp. An easy way to do this is to use a metal cookie cutter to push down on the potato. This cuts the shape for you, then all you have to do is carve out around the cut. As the children get older, they can learn to do this step themselves.
Along with their paper, I gave each child a plate of paint to use with the potato stamps.
The fun part is pounding the potato onto the paper to create colorful shapes (and the potato is the perfect chunky size for their little hands).

This week I also introduced marble painting to the children. I offered each child a tray with paper inside, a cup of paint and marbles, and a spoon for scooping the marbles. They put painted marbles into their trays and shook them around to create a new kind of painting.
Some of the finished paintings…
The toddlers are still too young to be working with marbles (many of them try to eat our materials) so I gave each child a golf ball to use in the same way.


After experimenting with the new activities, the kids began to move around the studio to find more familiar materials.



A sweet moment of sharing!
Our third activity for the older children was to continue working on the spray mural that they made a few weeks ago. I taped it down to the floor and set out markers for them to use. Jordan and Anna first began drawing clouds and rain. It had been a strange day of off and on rain and sun. Here is a bit of thier conversation as they drew:
Anna: “Where do the clouds come from?”
Jordan: “I think they come for the rain.”
Anna: “I think the sun is stronger than the rain.”
Jordan: “I think the wind is stronger.”
When Jason and Jessica joined them, they began drawing bridges. Jordan first drew the bridge she crosses to get to school, then Anna drew the Golden Gate Bridge. Then Jason said: “This is the Bay Bridge because it’s so long.”


With the new warm weather, the children began to ask to go outside earlier than usual.
I brought some activities outside for them to work on as we wrapped up class.
Rock painting…
Mural spraying…
But the water play is always the most fun!
Even siblings get in on the action at pick-up time!
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April 29, 2010  by

Cake-Making with Clay

After last week, when our paper mache project quickly turned into an afternoon of cake-making, I realized that this was the perfect opportunity to explore the use of an emergent curriculum in my art classes. For this group, I reflected on the children’s interest in cake-making and decided to steer the curriculum in that direction for the following week.
So rather than making suncatchers, as the other groups did, I chose to offer this group a clay medium to expand on the idea of cake-making.
I gave each child a lump of clay (and a few smaller pieces that were easier to work with) and set out a tray of various clay tools on the table. I also offered each child a bowl of water and a sponge to use for moistening their clay. We initially talked about their previous cakes that they made and how that inspired me to collect new cake-making items for this class. I showed the kids a few techniques, but they mostly experimented on their own, learning about the tools and the different properties of the clay.


After I gave the kids a chance to get to know the clay, I brought out some more cake-making items: paper baking cups, glue, glitter, sand, and little “treasures” (rhinestones, buttons and sequins).




Towards the end of class the kids began to move around the studio, working on some new easel projects. For this easel, I cut up a variety of colored tape and placed them onto the tray under a piece of paper to make a tape collage.
Another sticky collage, this easel is set up with clear contact paper and collage materials. Just press and stick- A fun way to end the day!
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April 26, 2010  by

Tissue Paper Suncatchers and Emergent Curriculum

To celebrate spring and the sunny days ahead, we have been working on “stained glass” tissue collages. Each child was given a canvas of waxed paper, a brush, and a cup of watered-down glue (tinted with color so the kids could see it better). Spread out on the table was a variety of tissue paper. I encouraged the children to first paint the paper, then stick the tissue onto the glue- this helps the tissue stay down rather than getting stuck to their fingers.
Rogan experiments with putting the tissue paper directly into the cup of glue.


This week we also welcomed our new friend, Addicus, to class!
After discovering the scissors last week, Richie asked for them again- determined to learn how to use them.
When the kids began asking for more glue mixture, I offered them squeeze bottles of tinted water so they could add it to the glue themselves.
Pretty soon the glitter came out as well!





The kids were interested in working with the water and glue so I brought out some eye droppers for them to try. The eye droppers help kids develop the “pincer grasp” which is an important pre-writing skill.




For the easel projects this week I set up two types of sticky collages. For the first one, I cut a variety of colored tape and placed it on the edges of the tray for the kids to stick onto the paper.
Some of the kids showed more interest in painting the collage, so I offered them watercolors to use as well.
On the second easel I taped a piece of clear contact paper (sticky side out) for the base of the collage. Then I filled the tray with materials such as paper, cotton balls, and feathers and showed the children how they stick to the paper.
Towards the end of class, the children began to choose different activities to work on. This group wanted to use the spray watercolors, so I set them up outside to create a spray mural.
In this group, Lucia took a break to hang out in the garden with her mom during class. She found a small lizard and a “roly poly” bug that she brought back to the class to show her friends. They all immediately wanted to go outside to find more bugs.
As a believer of emergent curriculum, I want to honor the children’s interests and shape the lesson plans to allow them to explore these interests. With half of the class left to go, I dragged out a tarp, paints and brushes and offered them the opportunity to paint some rocks for the bugs. We collected rocks from the ground and everyone took part in the rock painting. I also moved one of the easels outside in case anyone was interested in continuing the collage work.

As we happily looked for bugs and painted rocks, it suddenly began to rain. We all moved back inside where I quickly got out some powdered tempera paint for a rain project. I offered each child a tray of paper and powdered paint to bring out to the rain. The idea is that when the rain falls onto the powder, it suddenly turns to liquid paint.
But when we walked outside, it was sunny again! So I went back to the studio to collect the spray bottles for each child to make their own rain.


Although the spontaneous curriculum adjustments were a little exhausting, it helped me to realize how I can bring more of the Reggio Emilia approach (especially the concepts of emergent curriculum and project work) into my art classes. Which got me thinking about my oldest class… (stay tuned for more about them)

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