Jingle Bell Art!

Here's a super quick art exploration that the children love doing quite often.  At first glance, this may look surprisingly similar to golf ball art!  But, we've added a twist to this.  We've put HUGE jingle bells inside plastic cake boxes with clear lids. 

We've added paper cut to fit the bottom and several colors of paint.  The children work together or take turns bouncing, shaking and moving the bells around the box in order to paint the paper with the paint and bells.

We used red and green in these pictures, but I think we may try white paint on blue construction paper during January!  I'm imagining it may look a bit like snow on the paper! 

I especially love the fact that we were able to add the auditory component of listening for the bells to an art exploration! 

And now, after looking at these pictures again, I realize there's a great adaptation just waiting to happen!  If a child is not able to easily move the box on his/her own, attaching a string or piece of yarn and a large bead to the end, would give the child the chance to hold the bead and PULL the box around!  Hmmm...we may have to call that "train painting"!

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When Turning "Process-Art" Into "Product" Makes Sense!

Almost everything is about the "process" in my classroom!  We paint and create with various materials, tools and textures and enjoy exploring the process of painting and creating.  We dance and explore the process of moving our bodies.  We sing and explore the process and power of our vocal range, pitch and tempo. 

Talk about a sensory experience!  The feel of the tree, the smell of the gingerbread baby ornaments, the lights, the colors...oh my.   We may need to take a little sensory break after this experience! :)  Just realized how messy this looks...well, honesty is the best policy I suppose!

But, for highly concrete-thinking children, it often makes more SENSE to see an actual product.  Besides, I'm pretty sure the parents of the children in my classroom have pasted their walls and refrigerators (hopefully not the trash cans) with white pieces of paper covered in a thick, gooey layer of red, orange or yellow paint.  They may need a bit of a break from these wonderful paintings!

So, every once in a while, an idea for all these thick, gooey layers of paint papers pops into my head...and I run with it!  For several weeks now, the children have enjoyed using red paint on white paper...that's it....nothing else to it.  Simply red paint, white paper, various sized paint brushes and an easel!

Today, I cut all those large pieces of paper into smaller rectangles.  I also cut rectangles from red construction paper.  I stapled these in a brick pattern on our bulletin board to make a "fireplace".  I just had to add a rope light around it as well, as it simply wasn't bright enough already!

So, tomorrow, while we're sitting by the "fireplace" reading books (since it is the book area after all) we'll be able to talk about all the papers that THE CHILDREN painted to help make that fireplace!  

                                        

The idea of a "fireplace" will make sense to them, since this is often in stories involving the holidays.  It will hold some meaning to them and they will be interested in talking about it.  But, best of all, the children have also become an integral part of the creation of this "product".   And, because of this it holds more meaning and is more personalized.  So, even though I think it is important to embrace allowing the children to explore the process, sometimes it really does make sense to turn some of those process-art pieces into a product!

** Shared on the Rainbows Within Reach Happy Birthday Linkie :) **

Glue "Puddles!"

The children thoroughly enjoyed exploring colored glue today!  Because many of my children have not yet had the chance to explore glue, I basically just offered them index cards (thicker and will hold up to the massive amounts of glue the children want to use), colored glue and foam shapes and letters to stick on the glue.

I also provided old paintbrushes for the children to brush the paint on the index cards if they preferred.  The small cups that were holding the foam shapes and letters suddenly were overturned by one little guy since he simply needed MORE space to make glue "puddles!" 

And for some of the kids, the foam shapes were simply discarded on the table and never touched at all!  The real excitement was over squeezing endless amounts of colored glue!

And at some point I realized that we had gone from making glue puddles in the cups to exploring color mixing in the cups!

One little guy took a few brief breaks from squeezing glue to shake and rub his arm and complain that it hurt!!  You know you are squeezing a lot of glue when your arm hurts!

Of course, we had some who felt that covering every inch of the index cards with letters was the way to go.  So, those discarded letters on the table were used up after all!

We actually pushed back our rest time by 15 minutes today because there was NO WAY I was going to stop the kids when they were so involved and focused on this activity!

Believe it or not, we do actually have colored glue left in the bottles!  We also covered the glue puddles in the cups and are hoping they will still work tomorrow.  So, I've promised that the colored glue will be out again tomorrow!  After that, I'm pretty sure I will need to make some more!  At the rate the kids are using the glue, we have about one more day left!

Colored Glue Spin Art!

Every once in a while there are those great accidental combinations in our world; peanut butter and chocolate comes to mind!  In my world colored glue and spin art came together; and boy was it a combination!  (If you keep reading, and you've heard of this before, please let me know!  I have never heard of this combination...and I was pretty excited!)

After I wrote about record player art with markers, several people suggested spin art on the record player.  I just couldn't figure out a way to keep the paint contained!  Silly me!  There's no need to cut out the bottom of a bowl or bucket, just create a large cone to go INSIDE the bowl...or a flat piece of paper for the bottom of a bucket.  The record player will turn the entire bowl or bucket as long as it is attached somehow to the turntable!  (Obviously, the only difference with the two is that the glue will drip to the center of the cone!)

So I began experimenting!  I started a hole with an Exacto knife in the bottom of a dollar store bowl.  I then used a screwdriver to make the hole large enough to fit over the record player spindle.  I cut several circles out of white paper and cut a slit from the edge of one side of the paper to the middle.  I rolled the paper to create a large cone and taped it shut.  I then taped the paper to the inside of the bowl. (As we go, I also may attach a strip of Velcro to the bottom of the bowl and the turntable to keep the children from pulling the bowl off the turntable)

The bowl with a hole in the bottom to attach it to the record player.

Now was the time to experiment with paint.  But...wait; I had just made four bottles of colored glue with tempera paint and glue!  Hmmmm....I couldn't figure out any real reason why we COULDN'T use colored glue.  In fact, it may be an even more interesting experiment as it dries, as the glue will dry in bumps and textured lines on the paper!

So, I began squeezing various colors in the bowl.  It was a wonderful experiment....and I am POSITIVE the children will enjoy this tomorrow!  I think they'll also enjoy the textured finished product as it dries!  I'm not so sure it will go down in history as a combination as incredible as peanut butter and chocolate.  But in my room, it ranks right up there with the best of them!

Record Player Art

Several children became slightly hypnotized by our "Record Player Art" today!  This was obviously an unintended side effect of the fun of coloring on a spinning paper plate!

OK- honestly, I really did have a little guy who wanted to do this the ENTIRE half hour!  Of course, this was fine, but by the time he was finished he was almost in a trance!

We simply took a paper plate, popped it through the middle, turned on the record player and colored on the paper plate as it turned around!  

We made many beautiful and colorful designs as we talked about turning the record player "on" and "off", talked about the "bumpy" edges of the plate, the colors we used and talked about making lots and lots of "circles"!  The children worked together in groups of two and did a great job of negotiating areas to color on the paper plate!  We now have a board filled with beautiful record player art! 

I did, however, jokingly say that these children may now always think that record players were made for coloring (since they probably haven't seen one actually playing a record)!

Ladybug Painting!

I bet you've always wondered what "Ladybug Paintings" would look like!  No...you haven't?!  Well, we decided to spare the real ladybugs the embarrassment of having their feet painted; and we used our ladybug back massager as our painting tool! 

The children each took a turn choosing red or yellow paint, dipped the ladybug feet in the paint, pushed the button and watched the ladybug jiggle, wiggle and "paint" the paper!  

We watched as the ladybug mixed and stirred the red and yellow paint together to make orange and, a few times, had to work to keep the ladybug from cruising right off the side of the paper! 

I'm still working on a way to keep the ladybug feet holding a bit more paint each time!  The children did enjoy watching the ladybug bounce around and paint, but I think it will be even more fun if we add a few more bouncing bug back massagers to paint at the same time!  Hmmm...we'll have to save that for another day!

The closest thing to this that I can remember seeing on the Internet is Teacher Tom's Drawbots (Of course, I may be forgetting that someone has already done this- If so, I'm sorry, please let me know!)

I am linking this to Nurture Store's Play Academy idea swap!
 

"Scrubber" Prints!

We have been having a ton of fun reading the book "Mrs. Wishy Washy" and "Splishy Sploshy" (both by Joy Cowley).  We've also listened to the song "The Wishy Washy Washerwoman" (on Baloney by Carol Peterson)!

After spending last week exploring scrubbers and sponges with soap and water to wash dishes and our animals; today we explored painting with the scrubbers!

We found very quickly that the round scrubbers made perfect round bubbled prints!  Depending on how much paint the child used and how much was previously on the scrubber, the circle was wide and bubbly or thin and perfectly symmetrical!

We also used bath "poufs" which didn't work quite as well for prints, but were lots of fun to scrub across the paper (or hands!)

Thank goodness we chose to tape large paper on the table!  Our scrubber circles were lots of fun, but they sure took up a lot of space! 

Crunchy Carrot Painting!

We have been listening to the song 10 crunchy carrots by Charlotte Diamond this week.  To give us a visual as we're listening to the song, I attached 10 ACTUAL carrots to our flannel board with Velcro loops!  The children have been helping me take off carrots along with the song!   This has been a fun attention getter and visual prop to go along with the song.

Today, to extend this we decided to actually PAINT with carrots!  The children enjoyed exploring what they could do with carrot coins and large carrots.  They made lots of orange dots with the large carrots and used them to make marks on their triangle shaped paper.   After being shown how to make carrot "prints" with the carrot coins, one child also tried out this method of painting.

I am careful about what food objects we use for painting.  Most of the children in my room are not yet eating carrots and I wanted them to be able to explore more vegetables in at least some way.  I decided painting with them would be a good way to explore the vegetable in a way that did not include pressure to taste or eat it.

While we painted I made sure to emphasize the color word "orange" as well as the sign for orange (the link shows the version I use with the children).  "Orange carrots and orange paint!"  By the time we were finished, we needed to include; "orange hands!" 

This was a great way to introduce a new food item in a bit of a different and non-threatening way!  (don't worry- we plan to make carrot cupcakes later this week; so we will actually EAT carrots as well!)

I'm linking this post to the Sunday Showcase! (momto2poshlildivas.blogspot.com)

Wobbling Around...Wobble Painting!

So, I found this great idea for "wobble painting" at specialclassroom.blogspot.com.  For children who aren't able to physically hold a paintbrush, "wobbling" a bowl around can make for a great painting experience!  I used several plastic bowls, taped the rounded tops of plastic salt and pepper shakers to the bottom of each bowl and created our painting experience!

We used blue and green paint, paper cut in circles to fit the bottom of the bowl, tiny "porcupine" balls, cat toys with bells inside and tiny egg shaped "porcupine balls.  The children twirled the bowl, wobbled it by batting at it, held it in their hands and rocked it back and forth and experimented with how fast they could spin it and then how high they could make the balls go around the lip of the bowl before they threatened to fly out!  (Those would be our Bumblebee Boulevard friends!)   I'm seriously considering covering the bowls with plastic wrap next time so the kids can twirl the bowl as much as they want without having the ball fly out...although that may take away a bit of the fun...and, of course, would take away a bit from the scientific experimentation! 

Now, of course the little guy I REALLY wanted to experiment with this the most was struggling to stay awake at this point, so we will have to try this again next week with some different colors! 

It was interesting to note that each finished painting was so unique!  The colors blended together to create a kind of "earth" look!  The children that only used the porcupine balls had paintings with tiny specks of color throughout (left photo)!  The children who had the bell balls as well as the porcupine balls had smoother paintings with more even color!  I can't wait to try this again!  We may have to try some different variations on this activity; I'm sure the kids will be up for more experiments with wobble painting!

Paint-Dancing!

Today we began listening and reading the story "Abiyoyo."   After we listened to the story, we decided to 'paint-dance'!  Of course, this would be a version of the dancing that Abiyoyo does in the story; we just added paint to the mix!

We each positioned ourselves with two paintbrushes each, turned on some music, and had those paintbrushes "dancing" across the large paper taped to the table!  Some of us danced fast.  Some of us danced slowly!  Some of us danced with the paint side by side...but MOST of us danced with the paint swirled together!

Some of the children watched carefully as we used the brushes to swirl the paint in circles and make "feather" painting with the brush almost dry.  The children all stayed interested in this group painting project for more than 20 minutes! 

We enjoyed this project so much, that it may take several days for the finished group project to dry!   I think we may try this again sometime with different colors!  The children really enjoyed the open-ended aspect of this project.  And, of course, who doesn't like painting with TWO paintbrushes?!

Oh, yes, and some of us threatened to dance those two paintbrushes right on our teacher's head!   

Valentine's Day Heart Roller Stamps

I found these wonderful heart roller stamps at Micheal's.   They were $1.50 a piece and a GREAT deal!  We tried them out today during center time, along with sheets of pink paper taped in a long strip around the table.  This way the children could stand and actually walk all the way around the table while rolling!  What fun is THAT!    

We used purple and red ink to stamp with.  The children did need a bit of assistance pressing down hard enough to soak up enough ink to make a long print.

We also attached some thick foam tubing to the handles of the rollers since originally the handles were very flat and a bit difficult to hold on to. (The foam tubing is often used to help children or adults who have difficulty with strength and fine motor skills hold on to paintbrushes/ toothbrushes etc.)  You can find the foam tubing through Beyond Play or simply use Styrofoam tubing (this is what we used on these).   

When the children grew tired of using the heart rollers we brought out the pipsqueak markers to color with!  (The pipsqueak markers are much shorter than regular markers and better for small hands to hold and work on those fine motor skills)

This was a great activity that I think we might pull out again some day soon!  I think next time, though, we may just cover the ENTIRE surface of the table with paper as some of our children found it very interesting to roll the stamper in the MIDDLE of the table...or color with marker in the middle of the table!

Keeping warm...and exploring Quilts!

During the past week, we read "Cassie's Word Quilt" by Faith Ringgold.  Since we are always working on building language and understanding, I generally try to pull out the one most significant tangible item from the book to focus on during the week with the children.  Since we see the quilt in many pictures in the book and it ties the story together, we focused on the quilt.  And, although, there is much more to this story than just a quilt, exploring the quilt gives us a focal point for understanding the story.

Our paper "quilt" all put together!

We have several small lap quilts in our dramatic play area that we used while reading this book to emphasize that a quilt is a blanket.  Even most of the children from the larger classroom who came to visit knew the WORD quilt, but weren't quite sure what a quilt actually was.   So, we decided to make our version of a quilt at the end of the week...with paper squares.

Apparently you can never use too much paint or glitter!

Friday we talked about how our simple lap quilts in the dramatic play area are made up of many squares all hooked together with yarn.  We followed a few of the squares with our fingers.  We then went to the table and used various colors of paint and beads and sequins to decorate many squares of paper.   While we were working, I attached a few of the squares together with yarn so the children could see that eventually they would all be attached.

One child would ONLY paint squares with a TON of orange paint...nothing else!

Needless to say, we had several children that insisted on painting and glittering and gluing until their square was so wet and heavy that it took nearly two days to dry!!  The kids haven't actually seen the entire project connected together because of the drying time.  It will be interesting to see tomorrow what they think of all the squares hooked together with the yarn!

Even the teachers joined in the fun!

During this activity we even had one child who has never willingly used glue before work to attach sequins and beads and buttons to TWO squares (with just a bit of help)!  We were very excited about this! 

First time willingly using glue!  Yes, some of the buttons fell off, but that's OK!

 I figured for now, focusing on the squares hooked together, was enough.  At some point, though, we may introduce how these can be cut in two to form triangles and more patterns can be made!  We'll leave that for another day, though!