Art Time – Oh the things You can do with Melted crayons

Our Thanksgiving tree (find the pattern here) was up and ready to go, one week before Thanksgiving:But no autumn-themed scrapbook paper to make our leaves from!  Target dollar spot, you really let me down this year. I checked other places too – and could not find a single (cheap) autumn pattern anywhere – sigh.  I just love those scrapbook leaves. 

Ah well, this was a great opportunity for an art project I’ve been meaning to do for ages – coloring with crayons on a warming plate. 

We used scrapbook scissors (pinking and scalloping) to cut leaves from white cardstock; covered our little cup warmer with foil because melting wax tends to leak through paper, even cardstock; put the leaves on top of the foil and slowly drew with the crayons.(I do not have a warming tray, but this little cup warmer works great for small projects like these leaves.  You could also use a cookie tray taken from a warm oven, but make sure little hands don’t get burned!)

The crayon melts as you draw and begins to glide across the paper.  There’s something very relaxing about doing this!  M enjoyed it so much, he stopped making designs and began to just color entire leaves.  The smooth movement and the deep saturated colors on the paper put him into a sort of trance. :)  I think this would be a great rest time activity!  After he was done we turned the warmer off, crumpled up the foil, and were done.  No mess, which is always a plus, right? :)

Our leaves (mostly):

 

We also made some great little autumn shapes by melting old crayons and pouring them into cookie cutters… this is always fun because it involves SMASHING crayons with a hammer or piece of wood, or whatever you may have lying around that would make a good smasher. ;)

Sort:

Smash:

Melt and pour:

Let harden, then pop out:

A little wax leaked out the bottom of the cookie cutters, but everything turned out okay.  Still, I would use the flexible, non-stick muffin trays in place of cookie cutters, if you have them.

Have a beautiful day! :)

Art Time – Autumn Glitter Shapes

We made these last week, using some autumn cookie cutters from Target’s dollar spot.

Glitter is always so much fun, isn’t it?  And so pretty as it makes its way around the entire house.  Isn’t it fun to see a dusting of glitter sitting there, shimmering away on your couch as the sun hits it, two weeks later?  And then you realize you most likely had glitter on your bottom when you wore your black pants to church that morning, and you feel so thankful to have given someone behind you a pretty little treat like that.  Ah glitter.  We all need a little sparkle in our lives, don’t we?  ;)

So we gathered up some colored construction paper, glue, our cookie cutters and some glitter.  Trays were helpful for keeping the glitter under control, but apparently not helpful enough.

 

We had a saucer full of glue, into which we dipped our cookie cutters (wide side down).  Then we let them sit on our page for a while to let the glue drip down enough.  Next up was shaking on the glitter and then tapping it off.  I could have sworn I’d taken photos of actually doing this…

 

After they dried, M punched holes in the corners, we strung them up on ribbons, and added them to our oil pastel leaf banner, out in our breezeway:

Pretty, yes?  A great outside activity too, if you ask me. ;)

Have a beautiful day! :)

Art Cart – independent artwork

~a sampling~ ;)

The weather has taken on a definite it’s-still-fall-but-winter-is-nearer-than-you’d-like-it-to-be feeling here, which is strange, seeing as how it must still be mid-July, right?  (Have the past few months just flown by or what?  Please tell me it is not just me!)

And so of course we’ve been spending more time indoors and the art cart I made for M last spring has become popular again.  I love seeing what he makes all on his own with no interference or direction.  I love, love, love it.  I love it for many reasons, and two very small reasons are because it keeps him busy and happy and requires no work on my part.  I’m sure there are more noble reasons than that, but I am so giddy about him keeping busy and happy and it not taking any work on my part that I can’t think of those right now.

I just wanted to share a little of what is hanging up around here that M has done completely on his own.  I miss doing those Art Box posts, darn it, so you may all have to sit through a post like this from time to time.  (Well, you don’t really HAVE to, just let me imagine you are.)

A little sparkle:

Newly discovered magnetic tape (by M, I’ve known about this stuff for ages) has inspired all kinds of new magnets which just appear here and there: 

This… thing (the hole punch has been discovered also): 

Collage:

And, I believe, some works in process: 

Super-cute Mr. and Mrs. Frog (M did ask me to draw the hands and feet for these, but everything else was his, including the idea:

And a homemade kite, with string wrapped around a tp tube, hee hee:

Have a beautiful day! :)

Art Time and a little spelling Practice

Deborah over at Teach Preschool has a wonderful Facebook page, where she shares great ideas that she runs across when she is online.  It is truly fabulous.  And that is where I found this little idea about puffy paint (and I’m kicking myself for not noting the blog where she saw it).

This project was definitely a hit!

We’ve done something similar to this, here, and that was also a hit with M, but today’s version gets microwaved and turns all soft and puffy (or hard if you put it in for too long – oops!)

Recipe: 1 Cup of flour, 3 tsp of baking powder, and 1 tsp of salt.  Mix these together, then add enough water to make it pourable, but not runny.  It’s a bit like pancake batter, so go for that consistency, although I think ours would have been better just a tiny bit thicker than we had it.

 

I used a funnel to pour it into 3 squeeze bottles, filling them up about 2/3 or 3/4 of the way; then added food coloring and shook them up until it was mixed in.  The shaking part may not have been the smartest decision since it made the baking powder want to explode out of the bottles, but oh well.  You might want to mix your colors in bowls, and then transfer them to the bottles. ;)

 

I had written our last name on some cardboard, in “bubble” letters and M filled them in with the paint.  He loved this.  I’ve been trying to get him interested in learning how to spell our last name, and was so happy that this worked!

This is how the paint looked wet, as M filled in the letters:

He loved doing our last name so much, he asked me to write his first and middle names out for him too, so I did and he painted his entire name. :)

We put the painted cardboard in the microwave for about 20 seconds at a time, testing it each time to see if it was done.  It puffs up and feels a bit like play dough, except firmer and not mold-able of course. 

Very cool results:

 

I was thinking of this as art, but M kept referring to it as our “science experiment”, and I guess he was right too!  So, we had art, spelling, and science – and fun – all in one.  It doesn’t get better than that! :)

Have a beautiful day! :)

Art Time! Autumn oil pastel artwork

 

M and I recently made some autumn-themed artwork with oil pastels.  They turned out so pretty and were fun to make too.  M had to get past an initial “this feels weird on my fingers, and oh ack, it is making them dirty too” sort of thing, but then I reminded him that he is washable and he began to enjoy the process. :)  (That conversation was a bit surreal for me, considering the fact that he is normally drawn to dirt and messiness.)

Our supplies:

Construction paper in light colors, and cut in half (we used a light brown, white, and yellow); shape templates cut out so there are both the negative and the positive pieces (I found these printable shapes at Lakeshore Learning – they have quite a few free printables); and oil pastels.  We tried using cotton balls to smear the pastels, but found using our fingers gave us a much better result. 

The framed picture is there because we took a few minutes to look at it and talk about the many, many autumn activities going on in it.  I love this set of seasonal prints that I got for free at a book sale.  They weren’t painted by anyone famous or anything, but the detail and the style really appeal to me.  I’ve framed them and placed them in our breezeway above M’s little desk (we’ll switch them out each season):

We talked about the colors of autumn, and M decided that just about any color can be an autumn color if you do it right, so we decided to use all the colors of oil pastels.

We each chose a cut out shape, or a page with the shape missing, and talked a tiny bit about how these are referred to as positive and negative spaces. 

To do this, place your shape on a piece of paper, and color around the outline, using quite a bit of pressure: 

Then use your finger to smear and smudge the color onto the paper.  For the above photo, you’d smear the pastel outward, for the photo below M smeared it inward: 

And look – pretty, pretty artwork:

We made several of these and plan to string them into a banner.  Hopefully I’ll have a picture of that to share at the end of the week.

The inspiration for this art project was from this post over at Catholic Icing.  I thought it would make a beautiful project for fall.  It would be fun to do something similar with watercolors, don’t you think?  That just might have to make it onto our art to-do list!

Have a beautiful day! :)

MaryAnn Kohl: The Importance of Art in Early Childhood, Part 3

~Part One is here~   ~Part Two is here~

***Enter to win a copy of MaryAnn Kohl’s book, Scribble Art!
Rules for entering are at the end of this post.***

Here is a little collage I put together of just a few of the projects we’ve done that were taken from Scribble Art:

1. Salty Watercolors (like magic!)

2. Painting with a variety of things, mixing colors, gluing things on (so much fun!)

3. Dipping colored chalk in white paint and drawing on black paper

4. Drawing with our homemade “scribble cookies” (shaped like Christmas trees)

5. Painting with melted crayons (one of our favorites!)

Whoever wins this book is in for such a treat!! :)

 

Art versus Crafts

Here is the third and final question I asked of MaryAnn:

3. Is it truly important to do "art", where a child simply enjoys the process, with no expectations placed on what the finished product will look like; instead of  making "crafts" where a finished product is the goal?  Don't crafts help develop a child's creative side and give them a final product that they can be proud of?

MARYANN:  I love art and I love crafts too, but they are very different. It is art where a child learns to trust his own thinking and finds out how art materials behave and learns to control them, all within his own power. It is art that holds the unknown and the excitement of discovery and exploration. Crafts are fun and teach skills like following directions and give a child an activity that has a product that may work around a theme like Fall Leaves or Dinosaurs, and all of that is good. Children are often proud of crafts they have created, though sometimes their final products fall short of the sample they were shown and they can feel disappointed too. With art, they are the only judge of a final product, but truly, it is the learning and the exploring that has the most value, that is, the process of experiencing art. The final product is like a road map of what occurred, not the reason for the exploration. So yes, do a craft, and yes, do art!  

MaryAnn wrote the following to me at the conclusion of our interview, and I think this may just be the most important message of all:

MARYANN: I'd like to explore what makes art special a little further: Children express themselves through art on a fundamental level. Sometimes their artwork is the manifestation of that expression, but more often, the physical process of creating is the expression. Picture the toddler who has a new baby sister busily pummeling his fists into Play-Doh; a six-year-old joyfully painting flowers with huge arm movements blending, reds and yellows; a ten year-old drawing a portrait of her grandmother who recently passed away. Creating art allows children to work through feelings and emotions, and referring to a finished piece of artwork helps a child talk about feelings in a new and meaningful way. Art also develops a child's creativity. Rather than being told what to do, answers and directions come from the child. Art is an experience that requires freethinking, experimentation, and analysis -- all part of creativity. And it is the creative person who develops his thinking process so that he can become an adult who can think, who is not afraid to try new things and new ways of solving problems and making the world a better place.

Thank you so much, MaryAnn, for taking the time to share your thoughts and knowledge with us.  I hope my readers have enjoyed this; I’m very grateful for the awareness you work so hard to bring to educators and parents regarding why art is so important.  Children seem to intuitively know this already, and now I can better understand why they love art so much!

 

Giveaway Rules

MaryAnn’s wonderful website is Bright Ring.  Please visit it and follow the link to her Free Art Activities (the link is located on her left sidebar).  To enter this giveaway, come back here and leave a comment letting me know which art project you think would appeal most to the children in your life. :)  While on her website, you can also join her mailing list and check out her blog!

This giveaway will run through Friday, October 14th.  I will pick a winner via random.org and post the winner on Saturday the 15th.  Be sure to check back!  More good news – if you just can’t wait to get one of MaryAnn’s books, she has many of them available as e-books!

For more great information about MaryAnn, her work, and her thoughts about children and art, you might be interested in reading the excellent interviews she did with Jean over at The Artful Parent (here, here, and here).

Good luck with the giveaway everyone, and have a beautiful day! :)

Maryann kohl: the importance of art in early childhood, part two

How Art Affects Development

~Part one is here.~

 

***Remember!  There is a giveaway of MaryAnn Kohl’s book, Scribble Art at the end of this series!  Any comments left on this post or the first post will earn you an extra entry in the giveaway.  Comments on part one and part two will be closed when the final post is published.***

 

The second question I asked of MaryAnn Kohl is below, and her answer is packed full of information that I think will be of interest to many of you (it sure was to me!).  Being a good parent and/or teacher means, in part, helping our children develop skills that will serve them well their whole lives long.  In early childhood, art is an easy and fun way to accomplish some of these goals.  I’m so excited to be able to share this!  

2. Is a child's development affected by allowing them to experience art and explore art materials at an early age? 

MARYANN:  Art may seem like fun and games -- and it is! -- but you may not realize that your child is actually learning a lot through art activities. Your children will gain useful life skills through art, so encourage them to get creative, and you will quickly see that your children are picking up these skills:

Communication Skills:

When a child draws a picture, paints a portrait, or hangs buttons from a wobbly mobile, that child is beginning to communicate visually. A child may draw to document an actual experience like playing in the park, release feelings of joy by painting swirling colors, or share an emotionally charged experience like the passing of a loved one through art. Art goes beyond verbal language to communicate feelings that might not otherwise be expressed.

Problem-Solving Skills:

When children explore art ideas, they are testing possibilities and working through challenges, much like a scientist who experiments and finds solutions. Should I use a shorter piece of yarn to balance my mobile? This tape isn't holding -- what should I try instead? How did I make brown -- I thought I made orange? Art allows children to make their own assessments, while also teaching them that a problem may have more than one answer. Instead of following specific rules or directions, the child's brain becomes engaged in the discovery of "how" and "why."  Even when experimenting or learning how to handle art materials effectively, children are solving challenges and coming up with new ways to handle unexpected outcomes.

Social & Emotional Skills:

Art helps children come to terms with themselves and the control they have over their efforts. Through art, they also practice sharing and taking turns, as well as appreciating one another's efforts. Art fosters positive mental health by allowing a child to show individual uniqueness as well as success and accomplishment, all part of a positive self-concept.


Fine Motor Skills:

Fine motor skills enable a child do things like delicately turn the page of a book or fill in a sheet of paper with written words. Holding a paintbrush so that it will make the desired marks, snipping paper with scissors into definite shapes, drawing with a crayon, or squeezing glue from a bottle in a controlled manner all help develop a child's fine motor skills and control of materials.

Isn’t it amazing how much goodness art can add to our lives?  I value “art time” in our home because of the joy that creating and experimenting give to M (and honestly, to me too, when I sit and do art with him); but I find that I value it even more and am purposeful in making it part of our day when I remember how beneficial art is to his overall development.  Thank you, MaryAnn! :)

Post three will focus on “Art” versus “Crafts”, and I’ll talk a bit more about Scribble Art, hopefully posting some photos of the actual projects we’ve done that were found in this treasure of a book. (I think this was the first book of MaryAnn’s that we bought, and it is most likely the one we’ve gone to most often in the past few years.  I’m very excited that one of my readers will win it!)

Have a beautiful day! :)

Maryann kohl discusses the importance of art in early childhood – part one

***There is a giveaway at the end of this series; don’t miss it!***

 

Art, when you think about it, is an amazing thing.  The possibilities contained within a new box of crayons, a set of paints, a little glue, some scissors, construction paper, and so on, are astounding.  To be able to take a few items and create something that never was before, something unique and totally your own… well, who wouldn’t jump at the chance?  And if you are a toddler or a preschooler (or even an older child!), you might actually do a little jumping as you set to work. ;)  Excitement just pours out of their little bodies, doesn’t it?  It can’t be contained!  We mamas know a little about this too – our bodies were pretty involved in the sweetest creations of all, weren’t they?
 

Giveaway

As you may know, we are big fans of MaryAnn Kohl around here.  In the past I’ve said that we are her biggest fans, but as that seemed to surprise some of you that consider yourselves to be her biggest fans, I’ll just leave it at “big fans”. ;)  I was recently in touch with MaryAnn, who has graciously offered to send one of my readers a copy of Scribble Art:  This is one of our very favorite books of hers, one we go to again and again, knowing we will always find something interesting to do and experience.  MaryAnn has over 20 other books, each one full of art activities – you are sure to find one that is just right for your family!

(The giveaway will be at the end of this 3-part series, but comments on these first two posts will earn you extra entries!)
 

Interview

MaryAnn, even more graciously, offered to answer a few questions for us.  I had three that came to mind, from conversations I’ve had with other moms, either online or in real life.  We often refer to our home as the “art gallery” – if you’ve seen my kitchen walls and cupboards, you know why. :)  M loves to “do art”, and I do my best to encourage it, but I find it hard to explain just why art is so important to us.  And, I am not immune to “mess stress” either, although I try hard to not let it interfere with M’s creativity.  Sometimes this means closing my eyes and just not looking. ;)

I’m separating the three questions and answers into three posts so we have time to really think about and focus on MaryAnn’s answers.  She has so much wisdom to share. :)

1. Many moms of small children are so busy keeping their homes reasonably clean and tidy (with the care of their families genuinely at heart!) that it's hard to deal with the extra messiness of art projects.  Is it truly important for small children to experience art?  Do you think there are benefits of letting small children "do art" at home versus just waiting until they are in school and letting them get messy there?

MARYANN: Art is one of those activities in a child's life that can be messy, but it doesn't have to be. If messiness is a detriment to providing your child with exploration and discovery through art activities, go easy! Provide blank paper and crayons and feel good about it. Research shows that children who draw frequently without adult interference do better in all other academics. So easy -- and yet so important. A little preparation goes a long way for children doing art at home. Keep a trash receptacle near where the child is working. If possible, provide a small table near a shelf or closet where art materials are stored. Providing materials that are "self-serve" for children can make things easier for parents in the long run. Such materials would be crayons, paper, tape, stapler, scissors, and materials like catalogs or magazines for cutting, ribbons and sewing trim, cotton balls, or other collage materials (depending on suitability for the child's age and ability).  

Yes, it is truly important for children to experience art, and not just copying an adult's idea of how things should be made, but allowing a child to experiment and explore and create with their own ideas using materials on hand. The benefits of having art supplies and an area to work at home are many. One of the most important is that the child has a quiet place to go and unwind after a busy day at childcare or school, where they can freely draw or create at will. Parents benefit because the child is involved while dinner is being made or while folding laundry, etc. Art is one of the only creative activities where a child can rest while being busy. Reading is another. In fact, children who have art in their lives tend to also be good readers!

Isn’t that beautifully said?  And how often do children get to follow their own ideas?  So often, they just have to follow the plans of others!  Art is a great way to respect their  ideas and help develop their independence and self-esteem; as well as validate their ideas and creativity as good and worthwhile. 

Come back tomorrow for question number two, and don’t forget to leave a comment for an extra entry to win Scribble Art!  In the meantime, check out MaryAnn’s website, Bright Ring Publishing – she has free art activities available there, as well as a sweet art gallery to look through, and links to her blog and favorite websites.  
 

Have a beautiful day! :)

The New Art Cart

 This little car {I’ve been told it is a car} is one of the first things M created with his Art Cart supplies.

Have I ever shown you M’s little “desk”, as he calls it, in our entryway closet?  Here’s a shot:It is a simple shoe shelf.  This is where the coloring books, crayons, stickers, and such things live.  There’s even a mini-garbage can, which he seriously loves (you can see the top of it in the lower right corner).
He can often be found here, happily cutting out catalog pictures for collages.  (By the way, those Christmas toy catalogs are entertaining year-round; what kid doesn’t want to look at toys?!)  

The closet doors close, and any mess is hidden.  It’s really perfect.  M loves it, and sometimes closes himself up in there with a flashlight.  Such an adventurer. ;)

I’ve realized recently that M has become familiar with just about every kind of art supply I have to offer him.  Of course there are still new ideas and new techniques to explore, but most of these will be planned out and done together. 

He’s just gotten bored with the same old stuff in his Art Box week after week, and has taken to asking for things he knows are stored away. 

The Art Box is old news, apparently.

And I’m tired of fishing things out for him that he wants, that were just put away!
A couple of weeks ago I stumbled across a garage sale and found an old 3-drawer plastic storage unit.  The drawers are about 12"deep x 9"wide x 8"high. 

So we cleaned it up and then we raided the craft room.  To be honest, he wanted more than would neatly fit into the drawers, yet at the same time seemed a little overwhelmed with all he was given. 

So into what is quickly becoming the “Art Closet” went the little Art Cart, right next to his little desk.
Here’s a shot of his new art area, all labeled, because I like to do nerdy things like that. :)

In the Art Cart…
Top drawer:It’s hard to see everything – there are cardboard ribbon spools, cardboard tubes, stamps, a storage container of beads, feathers, sequins, googley eyes, dyed macaroni, and some more bits and pieces for gluing along with pipecleaners in a small bucket.

Middle drawer:Watercolor paints, acrylic paints, gel pens, porcupine balls (to use with paint), dot painters, roll painters, glitter glue, craft sticks

Bottom drawer:Papers – construction paper is on the bottom, fun foam, crepe paper, tissue paper, coffee filters, and a long roll of white paper.

There is a black bin on top of the cart that M uses to transport messy things to the kitchen table.
Inside the other containers (sorry no photos)…

The tote: scissors, mini coloring books, markers, tape, stapler, glue sticks, glue bottles

The collage box: magazines and a box to hold the cut-out pictures (he loves to just fill it up with clippings, then collage with them at a later date).

The pencil box: pencils, colored pencils, erasers, pencil sharpener


Need some new art for your walls?  We have plenty to spare. ;)

Linking up to

Have a beautiful day! :)