February 12, 2011  by

Valentine Printmaking

While I focused on finger painting with the new classes, the returning students began the session with Valentine printmaking. The 3s/4s class used heart shaped doilies and foam rollers to make stencil-like prints. After covering their rollers in paint, they carefully held the doilies down onto paper and rolled over them.

After rolling out the paint, the children peeled up the doilies to find their print! This one was done on a folded piece of paper to create a Valentines card.
The 1s class tried out monoprinting for the first time. They first rolled out paint onto an acrylic box, then used a Q-tip to draw a design into the paint.


Once the design was drawn I showed the children how to press a piece of paper (folded in half to make a card) down onto the design.
When they peeled it up, they found a print!
After experimenting with the printmaking the 3s/4s group began to embellish their valentines with glitter, markers, glue and collage items.
We also explored cutting out hearts by folding paper in half and drawing a half-heart along the edge (I first did this step so they could understand the concept and practice their cutting skills, then I offered them plain paper to try it out themselves).





After working on monoprints, the 1s class worked on bubble wrap printmaking and painting at the easels.

After a while this group was eager to get outside, so I moved an easel to the yard for painting, water, and sand play!


Outside, the 3s/4s class tried out jumping prints with bubble wrap, paint rollers, and paper. Jumping on the painted bubble wrap not only makes a print, but it makes a great popping sound as well!

The feeling of paint squishing around toes… soooo worth the clean up!

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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 7, 2010  by

Veggie Prints and Collage

This week the 1s class experimented with veggie print making. I cut a variety of vegetables (and an apple) in half to create a flat surface. The children were each given a plate of paint and a large paper to stamp out their veggie prints. The veggies were an interesting addition to tempera painting for the kids, but they were soon looking for something else to work with. I decided to try out the colored glue to give them a chance at squeezing. This proved to be very exciting, especially when I added bits of collage materials to the table!

Mia’s older sister, Sasha, joined us for class and worked on her sculpture project from the 3s class.
Electra and Mia worked with the glue and collage materials for a while. Scooping the small collage bits out of the large bin was very exciting.
Towards the end of class I brought out some trays and golf balls to paint with. The kids each smothered a golf ball in paint, scooped it into their tray, then rolled it around by moving the tray side to side.

The kids are really starting to collaborate more, sharing materials and working together!

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October 25, 2010  by

Halloween Monoprints and More!

We began this week finishing up our paper mache pumpkins. I offered the children orange, red, yellow, green and white paint. We looked at a real pumpkin and talked about the colors, but I encouraged the kids to paint their pumpkins any way they liked… which of course meant adding plenty of glitter!



A few more of the finished pumpkins after I sealed them with Modge Podge.
This week we also worked on a variety of monoprints. We started by rolling paint onto acrylic boxes to cover the surface.

Then I offered each child a cotton swab to draw a design into their paint.
When the design was ready, the children pressed a piece of paper onto the box (we began with folded pieces of paper to use as Halloween cards).
Finally the children peeled up the paper to discover their print!


Next we experimented with bubble wrap monoprinting. The children rolled their paint onto the bubble wrap and then pressed paper onto it in the same way as the previous printing project. We talked about how the orange circles looked liked little pumpkins!

To continue the printmaking theme, the kids used the acrylic easel and whiteboard to make even larger prints. They covered the boards with orange paint and said that they were making a pumpkin patch! Then they drew pumpkins into the paint and used paper to make a print.

Some of the other classes expanded on our ball rolling project from last week, this time using marbles.

After a bit of rolling the marbles around, the children decided to add water. This led them to scoop, stir, and pour the marbles- so exciting!
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After all this talk about Halloween, the kids began waving their painted hands around saying, “spooky!”

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September 14, 2010  by

Art and Wine Night

It’s back to school time so I decided to invite all of the moms from this upcoming session to indulge in a night of art-making and wine! Many of the moms have been watching their children here in the studio for months and I wanted to offer them a chance to finally participate in the creative process. It’s a way for them to get a taste of what their children are experiencing in art class and also get a chance to connect with other moms in the community. It was fun to hear how the children responded when their moms said “I’m going to art class tonight!”One child said, “but that’s my favorite class!” And another child said, “why can’t I go?” It’s wonderful that they feel a sense of ownership here in the studio :)We started off the night making monoprints with acrylic boxes (like we most recently did for Father’s day cards).



Then we moved on to collages with tissue paper and tempera paints (mixed with glue and water). This is a great project for anyone to jump right in, regardless of art experience- it’s simple and always beautiful!
Outside an easel was set up for a collaborative canvas painting. It now hangs in the art studio for the children to see :)
Thanks Mamas! Let’s do it again soon.

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August 23, 2010  by

Stamps!

For our last day of the summer session, I introduced stamp printing. We began by using the stamps that the children made last week, a plate of paint, and a roller. Each child chose their own paint color and used the roller to cover the design of the stamp.


Once the stamps were fully coated, the children pressed them down onto the paper to make a print.

After experimenting with their original stamps, I brought out fruit and veggie stamps that I made by slicing each one in half to create a flat surface. The mushrooms made the most noticable prints, but the children still had fun trying out the potatoes, bell peppers, squash, apples, rubarb, and carrots.
As another form of stamping, I offered the children “dot” paint bottles to create circle stamps. At times the stamping sounded like a drum circle!


The children are getting to know the studio much better and feel comfortable going to the shelf to collect new items and tools to work with.







Interaction and collaboration between the kids is really what makes these classes so special!
Thanks for a wonderful summer session. See you in the Fall!

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August 9, 2010  by

Re-visiting old work and Monoprinting

Although our focus this week was on monoprinting, we began class working on unfinished projects from previous weeks. The children were first invited to use markers to add to their watercolor paintings from last week.




Another project to be continued was their salt dough sculptures that were finally dry and ready to be painted.

After re-visiting the old work, the kids were ready to get going on some monoprinting! We worked on two different types of monoprints, depending on the class. One type was done by paining directly on a plastic mat, placing a sheet of paper onto the painting, gently rubbing the back of the paper, and then peeling it up. Most of the kids have tried this technique on the acrylic easel, but it was a new experience to do it right on the table.



My niece, Naomi, demonstrated the printmaking for the kids. She may become my new assistant!
The second monoprint technique is a fun and very easy project to try at home. First I folded a large piece of paper (for each child) in half. They painted on one side of the paper, then unfolded it and refolded it the other way, so that their painting created a mirror image on the other half.
Eventually the glue, glitter, and all kinds of things came out- and the children led the way from there!








The children are getting more interested in using the scissors lately- what a hard skill to learn!


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July 5, 2010  by

Leaf Prints in Clay

I wasn’t planning on doing clay this week, but of course being open to an emergent curriculum means tossing my plan out the window if necessary. Last week I had many requests for working with clay again and I wanted to honor those requests and let the kids continue to explore clay in different ways. This time I offered them a red firing clay (as opposed to the white modeling clay), which is much softer and a little grainy. I first gave them some time to get to know this clay with familiar tools.



After a bit of exploration, I brought out a variety of leaves and demonstrated how to make a leaf print (explaining that it is similar to making a print with paper and paint- which they are experts in!)





The leaf printing was very exciting for about 5 minutes! Then the kids began to gather paint, glue and other materials to use with their clay.




Eventually, the easels were visited as the kids moved around the studio.




Some of the kids brought scissors to their clay work and learned how to cut the clay!

After working with the clay, the older class decided to work with markers on the floor. When some of them began to draw faces, I offered them hand mirrors to see the details of their own faces like we did with our self-portraits.


Sometimes when we wash up outside, the kids request the spray bottles…

Some of the finished clay work

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June 16, 2010  by

Clay and Monoprint Cards

We began our first summer session working with clay. I gave each child a slab of clay and plenty of tools to explore and manipulate this cold, pliable material.





After working for a little while with the tools, I offered the children cups of water and sponges to moisten their clay. I showed them how the clay can easily dry out and how a little water can soften it right up again.

Of course everyone wanted much more than just a little water, so I offered them squeeze bottles to fill the cups themselves.
The slippery feeling of water on clay captured their attention for quite a while!
Because Father’s Day is coming up, I thought it would be fun to make gifts out of our clay work for all the dads. After much exploration, it was time to decorate the work- so I brought out some decorating items that dads might appreciate… screws (with flat ends for safety), nuts, washers, buttons, and shells. The kids had fun sticking these materials into the clay for their dads.
And some children even brought out paint to add to their creations.
Taking a break from their clay work, some of the kids worked on paintings at the easels.



To make Father’s Day cards, I brought out materials for making monoprints- just like we did here for Valentines Day. The children rolled out paint on acrylic boxes, drew a design with a cotton swab, then pressed a folded piece of paper down onto the design to make a print.
A sneak peek at the final results!

Happy Fathers Day!

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April 6, 2010  by

Finger Painting

We began the new session with finger and object painting- a fun activity for a rainy afternoon! I offered each child a bowl of paint and a spoon to get started. Some were eager to get their hands messy, while others first used the spoon to begin their paintings. I slowly added tools for the children to paint with- such as interesting brushes, combs, and necklaces.




Eventually, the toy cars came out- as always, they were a hit with everyone!


As the paintings progressed, the children got more into the sensory experience of the paint.

Jason uses his paint-covered hands to make prints at the easel.
Jordan focuses on her brush painting at the easel.
Jessica and Karuna came up with the idea of painting the wall and then washing it off with a wet towel- It seemed that cleaning the wall was just as fun as painting it!
Anna continues to work at the table with the necklaces and paint.
Karuna showed Jason how to make a monoprint on the acrylic easel by rubbing a piece of paper onto the paint and then peeling it up.
Jessica was soon making monoprints as well.
Collaborative painting and making new friends!

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