Adventures in Art: Look What We Can Do With A Leaf

the FUNdamentals of Art  - LINES

Inspirational book: The Little Yellow Leaf by Carin Berger

Project Station: LEAF Rubbing & Water Colors  

Preschooler and up can create very detailed leaf drawing by creating a leaf rub. 

Collect a variety of  leafs and lay the "rib side" up.  Place a sheet of paper over the top and using an oil pastes or color canyons rub over the top.  The leaf image should appear. Next, add water color and markers.  

 

Inspiration website: http://www.alyxia.org/2011/08/leaf-rubbing-and-watercolor-painting.html

Collage, Play Dough, Sensory Station : Line Sculptures

Create a King and Queen of fall with these fun leaf crowns.  Simply create a headband with construction paper and adjust the size to the head with a stale or two.  Collect fall colored leaves.  Next, fold and staple the leaves around the headband to create a smooth edge.  Finish with stapling a pipe cleaner with the child's initial. 

 

Inspiration website: http://www.elsiemarley.com/leaf-crown.html
 

Painting WITHOUT Brushes Station: Fingerprint Tree

I created this template and added a little Fall Poem about leaves.   The kids press their thumb in a colored stamp pad and stamp it on the template to create an illusion of a fall tree.  Don't forget to add leaves on the ground and blowing about.  Optional - older kids can add animals or a self portrait playing in the leaves.

I’m a little leaf

Orange, yellow and red

Hanging in a tree

Happy as can be

When the wind blows

It spins me around

Whirling, twirling

Down to the ground

How to look at Art - The Elements of Art Video

Do you know the Elements of Art???

My preschool art class (FUNdamentals of Art) is based on the elements of art.  Each week month we focus on one of the seven elements of art. 
Can you name them all?

Here is a GREAT video to help you remember.



LINE, SHAPE, FORM, SPACE, COLOR, VALUE AND TEXTURE

Adventures in Art

the FUNdamentals of Art  - LINES

Project Station: Letter Lines

Finger Painting on Canvas.  Today we played with Foam Paint and learned the about lines that makeup the first letter our name.  The texture of the foam paint is so fun to touch.  The best part is it's no-spills and dry so fast, almost on contact. Perfect for painting on canvas. Projects go home 10mins later.

 

 

Painting WITHOUT Brushes Station: Rolling Lines

At this station we cover balls with paint and rolled them around on paper to create crazy lines.  We explored different size balls and textured balls.  We also used Bio Paint for bright colors.

 

Collage, Play Dough, Sensory Station : Line Sculptures

What preschooler does not like Pipe Cleaners?  We learned to create different lines with FUN colored and Striped pipe cleaners.  Each child was giving a small square of recycled Styrofoam and took the crazy pipe cleaners lines and stuck them inside. They were also given kid scissors to create different lengths. This is a very easy and fun project that could keep the kids busy for hours. Older kids could make crazy animals or people sculptures.  Found the inspiration from this UK Blog

 

Ice COLD Lemonade for Sale - Lemonade Stand

A Little Lemonade Stand

 

This is a summer must for little ones.  My little girl obsessed with  money and buying things, so we decided to let her earn some money of her own and opened our own Lemonade Stand.  We built a stand from old recycled wood from pallets and painted a the name on some draft wood we collected at the beach.  Grandma helped too by making and donating a few rice crispy treats to sell with our ice cold . The Lemonade and treats were great and we sold in less than an hour!  And made over $25 dollars.

Best tip:  Advertise as "FREE Lemonade" and just put out a donation jar.

MESSY MONDAY'S - Sawhorse Pendulum Painting

Our Messy Monday Art Project  - The Goal was to build & create a working pendulum painting deceive using materials we already had.

• I found two sawhorse brackets and place a long thin piece of wood across them
• Added a small hook screw to the thin piece of wood to hold the string
• Found a squirt bottle and cut the bottom of the bottle off and added 2 holes by using a hole punch. 
• Tie the string through the holes and hang from the hook. Now you are ready to add paint and spin. (50% water / 50% paint)

Tie Dye Leaves

Coffee Filter Leaves

It does not have to be fall to make colorful leaves.  This is an easy project indoor project that the kids love and you have all the stuff in your kitchen. 

What you need:

• Coffee filters
• Cookie tray or Art tray
• Colored markers
• Spray water bottle
• Salt

What you do:

1. Cut your coffee filter in the shape of a leaf. 
2. Color it with markers on the tray
3. Spray with filters with water bottle
4. Sprinkle salt over the top
5. Let it dry
6. Add black leaf line when dry.

Tape them to the window or to a tree and make a tree.

I got this great idea on the Chocolate Muffin Tree. http://www.thechocolatemuffintree.com/2011/09/tie-dye-coffee-filter-fall-leaves.html

Read, Read, Read All About It

It's a News Paper Fort

It's mid-winter break this week here so all the kids scheduled activities are canceled.  What to do all day?  I pinned this long ago and finally collected enough new papers to pull off this project.  Let's build a news paper fort to play in.  Morgan help roll the paper and count the paper rolls.  You will need 12 triangles of rolled paper. That's 36 rolls of paper. It took about an hour to build. We also used duck taped to help reinforce the fort.

For instructions go here :http://www.modernparentsmessykids.com/2012/06/play.html

We covered ours with blankets and the kids have been playing house all morning.  Turn the lights off and add flash lights for fun.