3-d nature art – hot glue style

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I haven’t mentioned much here about M’s enthusiasm for the glue gun.  He loves it.  He uses it only with supervision, is extremely careful, and is responsible enough that I trust him with it.  I would not advise a glue gun for every 5 year old’s art supply set though.  Ours is a low temp gun; I can not use a high temp gun without getting blisters – I would never allow M to use one.

The wonderful thing about hot glue is the freedom it gives you to build upwards when creating art.  Regular white glue would not hold as well, nor would it dry as quickly.  Quick-drying glue is important when you are 5 years old and building something as fast as your imagination can go. :)

I started with setting out a few supplies: Glue gun, glue sticks, sea shells, glass stones (florist style, flat marble), wooden beads, craft sticks, pine cones, and a sturdy surface to place everything on.  A thick piece of cardboard would work… we ended up using tagboard from the back of a certificate frame.  A piece of wood would be lovely as a base as well!

Then I sent M out to scavenge in the yard.  Since we’ve had a mostly brown winter it was easy for him to find several interesting things:

Then the fun began.  M was very particular about deciding just where everything should go.  He absolutely loved this.  He finished two masterpieces and begged to do more.  If I’d had enough material for bases, I think he would have done this all afternoon!

  

The finished artwork… Can you tell what they are supposed to be?

Playgrounds!  We added some peg people the next day:
I love that he built miniature play areas… it reminds me of a fairy land sort of thing – something I’m not sure he’s ever heard of (poor child) – beautifully made with bits of nature and, of course, the amazing hot glue gun! :)

Have a beautiful day! :)
Nicole

Tree and Leaf Nomenclature Cards

I love the look and idea of Montessori botany puzzles and nomenclature cards.  And I’m really trying to incorporate more Montessori elements into the activities I do with M.  Autumn is on its way (many people aren’t excited about that, something I just don’t understand.  Autumn is glorious and I love it.  It’s not autumn’s fault that winter follows close behind!) and I know we’ll be talking a lot about trees and leaves… so I whipped up these little nomenclature cards for trees and leaves.

The idea is to print two sets, then match them up while learning the names of the various parts.  Each card has a different area highlighted in color, and there is one non-highlighted card titled “leaf” (or “tree”).

Eventually we’ll use these as 3-part cards too, and I’ll cut the labels from the second set of cards so M can try matching up the words in addition to the pictures.  For more info on how to use 3-part cards, see this great blog post.

Of course I’m sharing my little creations!  They were very simple to make and not too time consuming.  I hope to make more printables along these lines in the weeks ahead.  The links for these are below:
Tree Nomenclature Cards Leaf Nomenclature Cards

Have a beautiful day! :)