art supplies
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Genius Painting Solution!
I shared this incredible find on my instagram yesterday – but had to put it here too! I spotted this paint tray at the Dollar Tree and quickly scooped a couple up for myself. This would be the BEST art solution for the classroom. A place for individual paint (or glue, or small collage materials, or beads, or…) an easy to clean surface, and it closes so that children can come back to a project later. It’s like a preschool art miracle! These are available in stores, but you can also order in bulk on the Dollar Tree website – a case of 24 at a time (it’s like they…
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DIY Art Supply Kit
*This post contains affiliate links* I’ve been looking at art supply kits like this one, and this one, for months. I love the idea of them – all of those great supplies right at your fingertips! It definitely makes creativity feel easy and inviting. Plus, everything is easy to access, which means that children can use it independently and I’m not using my precious time finding and opening supplies. I haven’t been able to pull the trigger because every kit that I find includes one or two things that I don’t need or want. So I finally took matters into my own hands and put together a DIY art supply…
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Valentine Crafting for Kids
We had a snow day this week! As a teacher, that’s always welcome – as a parent it’s a bit of a scramble to find things to keep my girl busy all day. I had a good feeling that this particular snow day was coming, so I tried to plan ahead. Art projects are always a good option! After working on some of my own projects on Tuesday, I put my leftover supplies (along with some others from our craft stash) together so that they’d be all ready for some Valentine’s Day crafting. I started with this tray. It’s been one of my all-time-favorite purchases – it’s a heavy melamine,…
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Christmas Clearance for the Classroom
I love a good sale – who doesn’t?! When it comes to after-Christmas clearance sales, there are so many things that can be used in the classroom. Check out some of the materials that I love to scoop up on Christmas clearance for preschool! Anything that doesn’t scream Christmas can be a great supply for the rest of the year. This includes: Ornaments can be repurposed as figurines for play areas and sensory bins. look for: There are so many different options for sensory play, like: After Christmas, there’s still the rest of the winter season – so anything that supports exploring snow and winter themes is fair game: I…
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Ask for donations – and actually get them!
Let me paint a picture – You have this great activity planned and you can’t wait for the children to get really creative with it, so you make a list of materials that you need and hand it out to all of the parents with a deadline for their classroom donations. That deadline comes and you’ve received 1 or two items off your list. Now you have a choice, do you cross the activity off your list or find another way to secure the materials you need – even if it means buying them yourself? Raise your hand if this has happened to you – is your hand raised? Mine…
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Friday Freebie – Art Center Labels
Happy Friday! Today’s freebie goes along with all of the art projects that I shared this week. These Art Center Labels are perfect for keeping your art area organized and making sure that children know where materials and supplies belong. Go download these from Jessica Harris and have a great weekend!
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Activities to do with Yarn – Art
If there is one thing that is universal for every single preschool program it’s that you never seem to have enough materials for all of the activities that you want to do with the children. Over the years I’ve gotten pretty good at creating fun experiences with very few supplies. I thought it would be fun to focus on one simple supply and share a ton of easy activities that you can do to meet different learning domains. This week is going to be all about things you can do with yarn. Yarn is a creative material – while it is generally intended to be used for knitting, crocheting, and…
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Save your extra wrapping paper!
Preschool teachers are well known for saving everything, so it should come as no surprise that I’m telling you to save your left over wrapping paper. There are so many things that you can use it for in the classroom, here are a few ideas: Create artwork on top of the wrapping paper design. Most wrapping paper is shiny, so it would be interesting to see how paint, crayons, and glue react to this surface. It would also be interesting to see if the children cover the design, or if they incorporate it into their art. Cut wrapping paper into smaller pieces and use it for collages. I always had…
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Which type of food coloring to use?
There are a few different kinds of food coloring, but the two that are the most readily available (read: easy to find in the store) are your traditional liquid food coloring, and gel food coloring. Both can be used in the classroom to add some color to your art projects, but there are different materials that each work best with (the following links are affiliates). When you’re using liquids, you want to use the liquid food coloring – makes sense right? Liquid food coloring is easy to mix with water, thin paints, vinegar (if you’re doing the project that I posted about yesterday), and soap. It’s also perfect for recipes…
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Things that you can dye using food coloring
Would you believe that one of my favorite art supplies is food coloring?! It’s cheap, easy to use, and I know it’s safe. It does make a bit of a mess so I try to use it when I know we won’t be touching it, but it comes off of skin better than most liquid watercolors. My favorite way to use food coloring is to dye different objects with it, here are two of my favorites: Colored sand Dyed pasta I’ve also seen it used to dye oats, rice, playdough, and homemade paints. Check back each day this week for more activities and tips on using food coloring for art!
