painting
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Easy Preschool Valentine Gift
I love to make a nice gift for families on Valentine’s Day – but after the chaos of trying to finish Christmas gifts quick and inexpensive are my main requirements! Here’s an idea that meets those characteristics and is super fun too. Try this easy preschool Valentine gift with your class this year. I started with a thin wooden heart from the Dollar Tree – they come natural and you could definitely leave them that way, but I used a couple of coats of old house paint to paint mine white. I also removed the twine hanger. When these were dry I took some washable Crayola paint (affiliate link) and…
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Messy Art for Preschool – Toothbrush Painting
I’m not sure that I’m in majority, but I love love love messy art projects. Yes, they are a pain to clean up, but they are such a fun experience for the children because they never get to do stuff like this at home, and it’s always a new way to experience the materials that you’re using. As for the cleaning part, the children are usually just as excited to help me clean up as they are to actually do the activity. Toothbrush painting can be done in a variety of ways – the most simple being to brush the bristles along the paper like you would with a traditional…
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Messy Art for Preschool – Oil and Watercolors
I’m not sure that I’m in majority, but I love love love messy art projects. Yes, they are a pain to clean up, but they are such a fun experience for the children because they never get to do stuff like this at home, and it’s always a new way to experience the materials that you’re using. As for the cleaning part, the children are usually just as excited to help me clean up as they are to actually do the activity. Today’s messy project is an awesome idea from Babble Dabble Do, click here to read more about Oil and Watercolors!
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Messy Art for Preschool – Rubber Band Snap Painting
I’m not sure that I’m in majority, but I love love love messy art projects. Yes, they are a pain to clean up, but they are such a fun experience for the children because they never get to do stuff like this at home, and it’s always a new way to experience the materials that you’re using. As for the cleaning part, the children are usually just as excited to help me clean up as they are to actually do the activity. Here is one of my all-time favorite messy art projects: Rubber Band Snap Painting doesn’t require a ton of materials. You’ll need some sort of tray or shallow…
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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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Great big list of things to paint on
If you’re looking for a way to spark your students’ interest in painting, consider giving them something a little unusual to paint on. This is a great way to learn about new materials; children can explore absorption, experiment with using different amounts of water, and see how different brushes work on different backgrounds. Painting on a specific kind of material can also encourage children to explore the texture and detail of the material because the paint will intensify these details. Here is a great big list of things that you can paint on: Aluminum foil Waxed paper Saran wrap Press and Seal wrap Bubble wrap Canvas Velvet Leather Flannel Denim…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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It’s cold outside!
It has finally gotten cold and snowy in our neck of the woods, which means no more outdoor play time and planning lots of extra activities to keep our energetic kiddos busy. Here are a couple o the things that we have been working on: Masking tape resist snowflakes: simply use making tape to make snowflake shapes on a piece of white paper, then let the children paint over the tape. We used different shades of blue paint with a little extra sparkle, but silver or gray would be pretty too! When the pint has dried you can peel the tape off and you have white snowflakes. Name snowmen: this…
