As we prepare to launch the new Art Pantry website, we decided to hold a focus group for a few local mamas to get some feedback. With Valentines day coming up, we had the perfect excuse to get everyone’s creative juices flowing.
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Here are some fun photos from our last two weeks of the Winter session. Both weeks were dedicated to a variety of print-making techniques (because there are so many great ones to try for young children!) I would like to go into detail about each of the techniques, but I am on maternity leave and trying to take it easy. Our healthy baby girl, Ora, was born March 11th. She’s adorable, full of love, and sleeps really well :)
Enjoy the photos and I’ll be back with more documentation from the new session next week.
Our hope was that the kids would use glue sticks for their collages so that they could take them home in time for Valentines day. As it turns out, 1 and 2 yr olds would much prefer to to squeeze white or colored glue rather than rub an unfamiliar clear stick onto their paper- imagine that!
For the last part of class, the teachers brought out our super fun floor painting tools and a canvas for some gross motor painting. The toilet plungers made really cool circle prints, but the child-sized broom was probably the hottest commodity.
After each class, we added painters tape to the canvas to preserve some of their work before the next class got to the painting. Once all of the classes have had a chance to add to the 2 canvases, we’ll peel off the tape and see if we can find the contrast between the classes.
While some kids got messy on the floor, the table was full of various tools for more collaborative painting.
The 3s, 4s, and 5s classes worked on an entirely different type of beading project. They began with a block of wood, markers, paper shapes, nails, and mallets to make the base for beaded sculptures. Of course they loved the hammering part!
After drawing on the wood and hammering nails and paper shapes onto their blocks, the kids attached craft wire to the nails (we used Twisteez craft wire, which is super flexible and coated with colorful plastic). Finally the kids threaded the wire with beads before attaching the other end of the wire to another nail on the wood block.
Some chose to embellish their sculptures with glue, glitter and more collage items.
We even had a sibling pop in to help her older sister finish her sculpture!
Don’t you love how they turned out?! Once finished, kids can experiment with bending the wire to create all kinds of new sculpture forms.
We started off our watercolor week with a bleeding tissue experiment in the 1s/2s classes. The children placed pieces of “bleeding” tissue paper (the colors bleed when wet) onto their watercolor paper and used a variety of tools to moisten the tissue with water. When the watercolor dry, the children will use them as a base for making valentines.
Aside from the basic sponges, the children used droppers, sponge rollers, sponge stamps, and spray bottles to get their tissues to transfer color to their paper. All of these tools provide the kids with different opportunities to develop their fine motor skills.
Spray bottles and brushes were used at the easels with liquid watercolor to explore the dripping effect.
After some super wet exploration, the kids were introduced to foam paint (a non-toxic paint with a shaving creme texture). I like to provide white foam paint so the kids can add paint themselves and create their own colors. Adding glitter is fun too!
Spraying foam paint on the acrylic wall panel offered a different kind of messy sensory experience!
After drawing, the children were given liquid watercolor and watercolor brushes to add more dimension to their work.
A finished still life from the 4s/5s class:
With our sporadic weather, we occasionally hit a warm day and get to have some fun outside in the garden after art class. It looks like a dance party going on on top of the hay stacks!
Last week the 1s, 2s, & 3s classes experimented with mixing their own paste for collage work. This project is super fun because it feels like a cooking and art project combined. First they scooped a cup of flour into a mixing bowl, added water, and then tried their best to stir it into a batter-like consistency.
As exciting as the combination of flour and water was, it got even better when the teachers brought out the colorful tempera paint and glitter!
Once the paste was ready, the children scooped it onto their tag board (the 3s class had frames cut from cardboard) and used a variety of scraping tools to spread it around.
Some of the scraping tools were made for children’s paint, while others were direct from the hardware store- plastic putty knives and plastic notched trowels for tiling. I love to see how the children learn new things by watching each other!
At times this was a very messy project (and not always the prettiest), but well worth the experience!
After the paste was laid down, the children began to assemble collage items onto their boards.
And onto the window… what ingenuity!
For our last class of the session, we explored a circular theme to represent the end of one year and the beginning of a new year. The 1s and 2s classes began with different types of ball painting. We used golf balls for children who aren’t accustomed to marbles yet, and introduced marble painting to kids whose parents felt comfortable with such small objects.
The kids used spoons to roll the balls in paint and scoop them into their trays. Next, they began to shake and tip the trays to make tracks on their paper.
Stirring the balls around and shaking glitter onto them was also a major part of the experience.
As the children began to collect new tools off of the shelf, the teachers brought out large paper to continue their exploration.
We even tried the ball painting on a large scale, where the kids collaborated to get the balls rolling.
As the kids began to move around the studio, we had some more exciting circular activities to investigate.
We tried out our new “spinner art” machine that spins the paper around really fast while the children added drops of paint to the moving paper. The machine came with squeeze bottles, but we first tried using our eye droppers with watered down tempera paint to help develop fine motor skills.
Here is an example of a finished spin art design!
While some of the children focused on the spin art, others were drawn to the pendulum painting, set up over the floor. We hung a string and plastic cup (with a small hole at the bottom) from the ceiling to act as a pendulum. The kids squirted watered down tempera paint into the cup and swung the cup around in circles to create circular and oval drip designs. The floor was covered with a painting that had been previously sprayed with watercolors, so the design overlapped the blotchy watercolor effect. One group of kids began to pass the cup back and forth, creating a cooperative painting game!
Before getting messy with the ball painting, the 3s/4s classes worked on a more crafty project for the new year… a “wish catcher.” They began by drawing a design onto a pre-cut poster board with holes punched into it. While they were drawing, the teachers asked them about what types of wishes they had for the new year and helped them write down their wishes. Some kids wished for snow, or to play with friends, and one even wished for a chainsaw (which it turns out he actually got for Christmas!)
After drawing on the poster board, the kids practiced their fine motor skills by “sewing” yarn in and out of the holes.
After sewing, the teachers helped the kids apply clear contact paper to the middle of the hoops so they could create a “stained glass” collage (they also made sure to stick their wishes into their collages).
Here is one of the finished “wish catchers” hanging in the window. Maybe they will help to manifest all of the children’s hopes and dreams for the new year. Happy New Year!!!
Last week in our art classes, we focused on gluing collages and sculptures. The 1s and 2s classes experimented with collages using an assortment of items and colored glue.
The 1s class was working their fine motor skills just trying to squeeze the glue bottles! I love how this age group is fascinated with what the other kids are doing. They learn so much by watching their peers.
We also experimented with a sticky collage, using clear contact paper and lightweight items. At the end of the week, the collage was full and we hung it in the window!
The tricky part was how to make something stand up if it wasn’t very sturdy. The kids began to figure out how to stand a piece up by placing other, sturdier items next to it.
Towards the end of class, some of the kids worked on print-making at the acrylic wall panel. They rolled out paint…
Drew a picture into the paint with a Q-tip…
Pressed paper onto their design…
…and peeled up their print! This was the perfect introduction to our next project, printed holiday cards!
This week the 1s and 2s classes worked on two different types of collages. The 2s class tried out the Summer Inspired Upcycled Collage project from a few weeks ago. I used paper shape-punchers on old group paintings to create fun, interesting collage materials again- but this time I added the step of drawing with oil pastels before doing the collage. After drawing, I offered the children glue and collage materials to create their collage.
The 1s/early 2s class created collage frames by mixing their own paste, applying it to cardboard, then adding collage materials. First each child mixed together flour, salt (as a preservative), and watered down tempera paint. They stirred and stirred until they created a thick paste to use as an adhesive for their collage.
After scooping the paste onto their cardboard, the children used various scraping tools to spread it around.
While working on their collage, some kids chose to add glue to make the materials stick better. They also wanted to add more flour just because it is fun to scoop and dump!
After working on the collages, both classes had some time left to paint at the easels (and on the windows!) and to get into some messy painting projects.
See you soon!
This week the 1s/2s class celebrated summertime with a flower petal and shapes collage. I taped clear contact paper (sticky side up) down to the table and offered them petals, sequin shapes, and tissue shapes to stick to the paper. I was inspired by the Artful Parent who recently used this method to make fairy wings!
The kids glammed up their work by adding plenty of glitter.
After the collages, I brought out some golf ball painting materials. The children caught on quickly how to shake the trays to create interesting lines on their paper. They had fun exploring the studio and periodically returning to the golf ball painting to do some more shaking.
Hard at work!
It finally feels like summer around here! After weeks of cold and rain, the summer heat has come around. I decided to celebrate this feeling with a bright, nature shape collage project for the mixed age class. I offered the children a sturdy poster board in a bright, summery yellow as a base. The collage pieces were made with paper shape punchers using scrap paintings that I otherwise would have recycled. Each shape is a beautiful work of art in itself! The children first glued down some butterfly and leaf shapes and then added sequins and glitter for a little pizazz. Some kids were really interested in squeezing a ton of glue on top of the shapes. When the glue dried, we found that the paint from the shape had bled out into the glue, creating swirls of transparent color.
Outside, I had a similar set up as last week (floor mural, easels, mixing table, etc.) with a different kind of water spray project as well as a dot painting table.
The second half of class was an open studio with water play outside and free choice inside.
I love summertime!