art
-
Personalize your playground with children’s artwork
At school we’ve been focusing on making our playground a fun place for the children to explore. We did some fundraising so that we could purchase a beautiful new sandbox, but I also wanted the children to be able to put their mark on the space. The Reggio Emilia philosophy encourages us to find beauty in our surroundings and create aesthetically pleasing learning environments, so I rounded up some ideas that will add color and whimsy to the playground! Recycled water bottle sun catchers Cement garden balls DIY stones with natural impressions Natural materials garden stones Tin can lanterns Stone and stump games I can’t wait to do some of…
-
Using Process Art in Preschool
Preschool should be all about exploration, which is why I’m a firm believer in encouraging children to express them selves creatively and giving them opportunities to explore art without boundaries. This is why I make every effort to promote process art in the preschool classroom. Process art places emphasis on the experience of creating the art. It encourages self expression and creativity, along with opportunity to explore new materials. The great thing about process art is that the final product is always unique. It also makes a teachers’ job easier because each art experience requires less preparation. Including process art in the classroom doesn’t mean that you have to give…
-
Recycled loose parts
I’m used to using loose parts in the classroom, I love them. I’m known for using recycled materials in the classroom, really, what preschool teacher isn’t? Another thing that I just might be notorious for – I cannot throw away craft materials, I just can’t do it. These facts make the project that I’m currently working on the ideal project for me. I had a ton of strips of scrapbook paper left from another project, and I had pinned this photo awhile back: What an awesome idea! I thought that I could roll up the paper and my students could create with it. I started rolling, taping each new addition…
-
Nature Art
I use natural materials in my classroom all the time – right now I have nature sorting in my math center, flower seeds and magnifying glasses in my science center, and twigs and tree circles in my block area. My students help me collect these materials, sometimes we go on walks around the neighborhood and fill up a bag, and sometimes they bring fun stuff from their yards. One of my favorite activities to do with wonderful bits of nature is to create a glue-free collage. This project is so simple, but encourages so many different responses from the children. The children are presented with the available materials and asked…
-
Spring art project
I found the idea for this extraordinary art project at De tout et de rien (talk about seriously amazing ideas for children!) Occasionally I come across a project that I want to do as much as my students do. They love it when I join in. We started this particular piece of art by making rainbows on 12″x12″ sheets of cardstock with oil pastels. Now I know that I’ve used oil pastels with my class before, but for some reason they were absolutely amazed with them this time around. This could be because I was smudging them into my paper too. Their rainbows were works of art, seriously, they looked so…
-
Science is art
I’ve seen this experiment on Pinterest a million times, I actually remember doing this same experiment in my 8th grade science class. I could tell you a lot of things about that class, but I couldn’t tell you why we did this experiment. The idea is simple, you pour milk in a shallow bowl and drop food coloring into the milk, then use a toothpick dipped in dish soap to swirl the colors. The concept that the experiment teaches is surface tension, and the idea that the soap glides through the milk, swirling the colors without actually mixing them. This was all over my kiddos’ heads, but they loved it…
-
Don’t mind the mess… the children are learning.
We’v all seen that quote right – “Please excuse the mess, the children are learning” (or something of that nature). This is so true in my classroom. At home, I am a neat freak; everything has a place, and it should always be in its place unless you are using it. I learned early on that this does not work in the classroom, nor do I want it to. Not only do I have far too much to do to worry about each and every item staying in it’s correct spot, but children learn best when they experiment, when they use different materials to create new items, or make up…
-
A little art anyone?
I’m enjoying a snow day at the moment :). This doesn’t happen often so I really let myself get into it – slept in late and left my PJs on all day! Since I don’t have any Leprechaun trap updates for you, I thought I’d share an art project that we did last week. My students absolutely loved this one. I got the easel out and watered down some Tempera Paint, then let them use eye dropper to drip-paint. We did it as a group project, so they built on each other’s work – and yes, at the end it was all a lovely shade of brown, but as they…
-
Textile art
I am constantly looking for new ideas for art projects. We have painted with every single utensil that I can think of, we have made pictures with glue, and sculptures with a vast array of different materials. So last week I deployed materials from my own creative stash. I am an avid quilter, though you wouldn’t know it because I haven’t had much time to devote to this over the last couple of months. But I figured it was time to attempt a quilting project with my class. We have sewn before, creating scarves one winter, and sewing paper to create decorations for the classroom, so they have seen me…
-
The best art activity ever – Primary color mixing
This activity is one of my all time favorites, it is completely open-ended, and children love it as much as I do. I start by covering an entire table in white paper. This is important because it really encourages collaboration between the children, and they can see the colors that they have created on the white background. Then I set out cups of paint – red, blue, yellow, and white (you could also use black, but then everything seems to turn black). I tell the children at the beginning that they can mix the colors all they want. They love this! Some times when I do this activity the children…
