April 5, 2011  by

Mixing Paste for Collage, Painting with Cars and Balls

We began this week by mixing our own colored paste of flour, water, tempera, and sand. The flour, water, and sand mixture creates a thick bonding paste that can be used as a base for a collage (and the tempera adds color for fun!).

After mixing their paste, I offered the children scraping tools to move the paste around their tagboard. They used small rakes, plastic putty knives, scrub brushes, combs, and plastic notched scrapers for tiling. This is a great introduction to making mosaics! The kids learn how to spread out the adhesive, and lay down materials into a design. After they master this technique, we can try grouting!

After plenty of spreading and scraping, the children added collage materials to their paste.

The oldest class did this project last session, so I took it to the next level and offered them cardboard frames (that I cut out of a large box) as a base for their collage.

Although I explained that the paste would work as glue, some kids weren’t convinced and used white glue to make sure their items would stay put.

Towards the end of class I rolled out a large paper onto the floor and showed the kids how to have “zooming car races.” Two of the cars are the kind that wind up and drive by themselves. They dipped the wheels in paint, and raced them down the paper to see which cars went the fastest and how far the tracks would go.

The weather has been gorgeous lately, so we spent some fun, creative time outside as well.

After getting this large box with my new outdoor table, I decided to use it for ball painting!

Window painting!

For her grandma’s birthday, Karuna wanted to give her the frame she made so I taped a photo of her behind the opening. Adorable!

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March 22, 2011  by

Different Types of Collage and Action Painting

For the second week of the session, I decided to try a new form of collage with the 2, 3s, and 4s… hammer collage! First, I needed to find hammers that were small enough for toddlers, but still strong enough to drive a nail into foam. I searched three hardware stores and was unsuccessful. As I was leaving the third store, I began to eye the PVC pipe section, wondering if there was any way to use a plastic pipe as a hammer. The owner of the store, who was helping me in my search, saw my curious look and said, “How about this?!” He took a small PVC pipe, another one in the shape of a T, some rubber plugs and an end cap and began to assemble the perfect toddler hammer!
For the base of the collage, I glued together a few foam pieces to make it thick enough for the nail. We began by practicing our hammering skills with golf tees, to make sure everyone could safely drive a nail.

Once I was confident in the children’s hammering skills, I offered them a small cup of nails (with large heads and fairly blunt ends) and an assortment of collage materials. They put the items onto the foam and created a design by hammering them in place.



It was great to see kids helping each other when they had a hard time holding the nail in place.
With a new found love of scissors, many kids decided to cut their own materials for the collage. Then, when one child realized that she couldn’t nail a tube-shaped cardboard to her foam, she asked for tape. This lead the other kids to create tape collages with colored masking tape.

As the children began to finish their collages, I offered them paper and markers for “challenge” drawings, like the ones we painted last week. Just as I had predicted, the markers worked better than the paint to prompt circle drawings.



In the 1s class we worked on collages, but instead of using hammers we used clear contact paper. The children chose their collage items and placed them onto the sticky side of the contact paper.
We had some older siblings join us who were very helpful!

After working on sticky collages, I offered the children large finger paint paper, a plate of paint, rollers and a variety of tools from the shelf.

With most of the 1s class absent last week, I decided to bring back the watery squeeze paints. This time, I put a long absorbent paper on the ground and demonstrated “action painting,” which is what Jackson Pollock was known for. The paint was flying all over, mostly landing on the paper, but also making some pretty puddles on the floor!

When the paint was all squeezed out, the kids found some brushes on the shelf and used them to move the paint around the paper.
The bucket of soapy water offered a fun, easy clean-up!
Our collaborative action painting:
Contact paper collage, hung in the window:

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March 2, 2011  by

Exploring Watercolor- All Ages

For our last week of the session, all of the classes started off learning about drawing and watercolor resists. The 1s and 2s classes used oil pastels as their drawing medium, which provide smooth deep pigments and work well in resisting the paint.
After taking a few moments to draw, the children were anxious to work with the liquid watercolors. I’ve learned by now that using a tray is a must when offering any kind of liquid to toddlers!
For the 1s class, I use jars for the liquid watercolor rather than the paint cup base that the older kids use. The 1 yr olds love to practice their pouring skills by transferring the watercolors back and forth between the jars… a skill that I like to encourage!




The children experimented with eye-droppers, coffee filters, and a few other tools they found on the shelf.
The 3s/4s class began with a still life drawing of a rose. I offered them black Sharpie markers (explaining that they are important “grown-up markers”) to carefully draw the lines and shapes of the rose. Most of the kids just drew whatever they pleased- grasping the concept of a still life will take a little more practice! After the drawing session, I brought out the liquid watercolors to add to their work.



Glitter became a key medium in this project!
After working with watercolors, the 1s and 2s classes got to experience the joys of foam painting! Foam paint is like shaving cream, without the toxic smells. I squirted some onto each tray and the kids enjoyed the sensory experience of lathering it over their hands and arms.
Then they added paint to the foam to create swirls of color.

The trays soon became a station for messy sensory discovery. The children used all kinds of tools and added water and glitter to the mix.


For the 1s classes I offered an extra layer of sensory by squirting the foam onto bubble wrap.




The mixture of water, foam, paint, and bubble wrap was delightful!
The 3s and 4s class moved on from their watercolor resists, to a different kind of watercolor collage. First they used a sponge and water to wet their paper. Then they placed small pieces of “bleeding tissue paper” into a collage design (when wet, the tissue paper releases it’s color). If needed, they used the sponges to moisten the tissue paper as well. When the tissue paper dries, it will fall off and leave a colorful design in it’s place!

Outside the 2s and 3s/4s classes worked on their spray bottle skills, spraying liquid watercolor onto a cloth and bulls eye paper.
The bulls eye spray game was something we tried out last summer. The kids love to aim and shoot!

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February 16, 2011  by

Making Textured Paint

This week we focused on making our own textured paint. Each child was given a mixing bowl, a spoon, a textured ingredient (sand, sea salt, tissue paper), glue, flour, and a squeeze bottle of watered down tempera paint. They added each ingredient to the bowl and stirred and stirred until it was evenly mixed.



Once a thick paint was formed, each child scooped it out onto a large piece of tag board to begin their texture painting.

To move the paint around the boards, I offered the children a variety of scrapers- craft sticks, sand rakes, plastic putty knives, and plastic notched scrapers (usually used for tile grouting). Using these tools, the children scraped and pushed the paint around, watching the colors mix together to become new colors.



After experimenting with their first batch of textured paint, the children began to add more ingredients to their mix- like glitter, colored glue, more flour, and even collage items.

The thick rough texture of the paint also provided a new type of tactile experience!

In contrast with out thick textured paint, we later moved outside to learn about drip/splatter painting with very watery, thin paint. The children automatically wanted to put the brush to the paper until I demonstrated how holding the brush up high allows for the paint to drip down onto the paper. The older children got really into it, experimenting with different wrist and arm movements.

Jackson Pollocks in the making!

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January 13, 2011  by

New Session For The 1s

For the 1s class, we began the new session with finger painting of course! I always start the sessions with finger/texture painting at this age because it is a great introduction to messy, open-ended art. The children get to explore the feeling of the paint as it slips around their skin and the way it dribbles from their spoon, or rolls underneath a toy wheel.
I first offered paint and one or two tools to the children so they could begin a simple exploration. Eventually, I brought more tools to the table to further incite their investigation.
Glitter is always exciting to children. I’m not sure if it’s the sparkle or the fact that they can shake it!
After working at the table for a bit, the children began to move around the studio to find new items on the shelf or to paint at the easels.


Because toddlers love to move, I also introduced the children to two different gross-motor art techniques. For the “shake painting” technique, we put a piece of paper and a painted golf ball into a container. Then we closed the lid and the kids were able to shake, shake, shake!

For the next technique, “jumping prints,” the kids rolled paint onto a piece of bubble wrap, flipped it over onto a large piece of paper, and then jumped on it. If they jumped hard enough they could hear the bubbles pop. This group seemed to enjoy rolling the paint more than the jumping!

After class we enjoyed some warm water wash up time!


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January 11, 2011  by

Printmaking To Kick Off The New Session!

Everyone was excited to get back into the studio this week after such a long winter break! For the 2s classes, we started off our session with mono printing. The returning children were already familiar with this type of printmaking and the new students caught on right away. The children began by rolling out paint onto a large acrylic box.
Then they used a cotton swab to draw in the design
Next, they pressed a piece of paper (slightly larger than the box) down onto the design and gently rubbed the back of the paper.
And finally, they peeled up their paper to check out their print!
After making a few prints, the sensory experience and mess making began!

Adding glitter to the prints was a big hit this week.


Soon the children began to move around the studio and find new materials to work with. Although the print-making had slowed down, they were really interested in using the acrylic boxes as bases for a variety of interesting work.
After a while of experimenting with the accessible materials, I brought out coffee tins and plastic jars to introduce “shake painting.” I put paper along the inside of the containers while the children scooped painted marbles and golf balls inside and secured the lids. Then they shook the containers making different sounds between the tin and plastic.
Then we opened the containers up to find that the papers were covered in interesting designs.
The shaking was fun, but not quite as much as scooping and touching the paint-covered balls!
The children were also very interested in the easels this week.

This session I attached a framed canvas to the wall for the kids to work on each class. It will be interesting to see how it evolves over the weeks!



In our Monday class, some of the children discovered bubble wrap on the shelf. They were really interested in jumping on it to make popping sounds, so I offered them the paint rollers and paper to see if they could make jumping prints. They rolled the paint onto the bubble wrap, then flipped it over onto a large paper and began to jump. It was so fun, I decided to try it with all of the classes. One thing we discovered is that the large bubbles make much better popping sounds than the small bubbles!


See you next week!

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November 9, 2010  by

Tissue Paper Sculptures and Various Painting Projects

As daylight begins to shorten this time of year, I thought about offering projects that can incorporate the darkness of winter. This week I decided to focus on tissue paper collage sculptures that are fun to play with in the dark! (thanks to The Artful Parent for this great idea) First I created a circlular frame out of wire, then placed it on a sheet of clear contact paper (sticky side up). The children were offered bits of colored tissue paper to create a collage.




The children also decided to add glitter and sequins to their collage!


When the collages were finished, I helped the kids fold over the sides of the contact paper to seal it up, then showed them how they can bend and sculpt the wire into various shapes. I happen to have a flashlight handy in one class, so I showed the kids how to illuminate the sculpture by shining the flashlight through- which is especially fun in the dark!
For the rest of class, the children re-visited their scrap sculptures from the previous week to add paint and more details.









As the children finished up their sculptures, they worked on various projects around the studio.





We even took advantage of the warm weather to finish up class outside.


While we were outside, I introduced “splat paintings.” First we soaked pom-poms in watered down paint on a tray…
then we threw them at the easel to create a “splat!”

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October 19, 2010  by

Halloween Inspired Art

In honor of Halloween and pumpkin season, I decided to try an ambitious project with the 2s and 3s this week… paper mache pumpkins! I used small balloons as a base for the paper mache, ripped newsprint strips, and a simple paste mixed with orange paint to make it a little more interesting. I also had to create a stand out of tagboard (similar to poster board) and masking tape to hold the balloons in place. I knew this was a difficult undertaking, so I asked the parents if they would help their children with this project (for the 2s class only). I usually encourage children to explore on their own, but this collaboration proved to be necessary to get the balloons fully covered- putting such an emphasis on the finished product is not something I do often, but I think the kids still really enjoyed the idea of making a pumpkin!
Some kids meticulously used paint brushes to apply the paste, while others were happy to dunk their hands in!
The 3s class was really into this project and managed to cover their balloons without much help.



I knew this project was a stretch for my 2.5 year old class, but was curious to see how my class of young 2s responded to paper mache… It turned out that they were not interested in it at all! First they were thrown off by the balloon being taped to the tray and immediately wanted to get it off so they could play with it. They also were not into the idea of painting gooey paste on their beautiful, clean balloons.
Luckily, I knew this aversion to paper mache was a possibility so I had a back-up plan!
I brought out a large bin, some black and orange paint, and a variety of balls to create a rolling ball painting. The kids mixed the balls in the paint, put them into the bin, then rocked the bin side to side to create rolled lines on the paper. I even convinced them to put the balloons in as well.
When the children moved back to the table I offered them collage materials, glue, and paint. This was much more their style!


Once the paper mache pumpkins were finished in the other classes, the children found various painting projects to work on.


For the final activity of the day, I brought the kids outside to try out the rolling ball painting that we did in the young 2s class. This project is of course exciting to kids because it involves paint and rolling balls, but it’s also a great collaborative experience. In order to move the balls around, the children need to work together and communicate with each other.



Some of the finished paintings… very web-like and fun for Halloween decorations.
In the young 2s class, we ended with a painting dance party and jumped around to a Kidz Bop version of “Can’t Buy Me Love”- at their request!

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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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