art
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Shape art
Both of my posts this week have been all about understanding shapes, but when you’re introducing a new concept to preschoolers it’s important to have fun with it too. Here are some great ideas for shape art projects that will inspire exploration and creativity! Shape Collages – from Nurture Store Create a city out of shapes Make pictures with shape blocks Recreate shape pictures What other shape art activities do you do? Share them in the comments!
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Movement Art
I planned an entire series of posts for this week thinking “It’s February, everyone’s been cooped up inside all winter and we need to MOVE.” Ha, clearly the joke is on me because it’s supposed to be 60 degrees all week here where I am so, all the little ones I know will get plenty of outside time. If the same can’t be said of your home, then this week is for you! If you’re lucky like me and getting some warm weather then be sure to stash these activities away for cold rainy days that are sure to come your way before spring officially gets here. This particular activity…
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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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Easy Leaf Art
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you know how hard I try to come up with art ideas that families will not only want to display, but will also keep for years to come. I found the perfect one for this fall with the help of Oriental Trading! This project could not be easier, your students will love it, and so will their families. I got the white ceramic ornaments from Oriental Trading’s Halloween collection. The “dipped” look is pretty popular, so that’s what I was going for. I put a little acrylic paint in the bottom of a plastic cup and added a little water so…
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Friday Freebie – Printable Paint Chips
Happy Friday! I went way back today to pull out a freebie that I haven’t featured in a very long time. This Printable Paint Chips set includes 33 different paint chips that you can print right from your computer – yes, I know that it’s probably more cost effective to go pick up the free paint chips from the store than it is to print your own BUT every time that I needed paint chips I didn’t have time to run to the store – I needed them now! So I made some that I could print in a pinch. The possibilities are endless with these, you could match color…
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Reggio Classroom Decor
My favorite thing about back to school is drooling over all of the amazing classroom decor that I see in all of the best teacher blogs. This fun stuff doesn’t really fit in my Reggio-inspired room, which is probably a good thing because I would spend way too much money on all of it! But that doesn’t mean that a Reggio classroom has to be boring – far from it in fact. I have a ton of great tips for decorating a Reggio-inspired classroom; 1, Have the children help you create artwork for the room. These masterpieces can be incredibly artistic and meaningful at the same time. The act…
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Cloud art!
When it comes to art, I believe in giving children the materials and letting them do their thing. This is especially true if an art project also happens to be related to the project that we’ve been working on because I want them to have the opportunity to express their own understanding of the topic. I try to anticipate the materials that they will want, and I will often ask them to help me create a list a couple of days before we do the project so that I can make sure I have the items that they want or need. Here are some of the things that I collected…
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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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Art that is actually science
Since I’m talking about using food coloring as an art supply this week, I really wanted to share a food coloring tie dye activity – but then I tried it myself and it was an absolute disaster. I’m currently trying to bleach the dye out of some white shirts that weren’t supposed to be dyed… Since I can’t very well recommend that activity, I thought I’d share one that I know is a tried and true hit. This one has been seen all over the internet, so I definitely can’t claim the idea – nor would I try to – but I can show you some really great pictures of…
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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!
