Line Designs

 Here is an open ended art project that we call Line Designs.  We simply cut lots of colorful strips of construction paper and gave each child a black piece of paper and some glue.  The children were shown many different ways that they could fold, bend, twist and shape their strips of paper.  They were even shown how they could go under and over other pieces as they created.

 One important step that they had to learn was how to put on their dot of glue and then hold their piece for 10 counts so that it would stick.  Once they figured that out, they were very successful and loved this project.

Christmas Pillows

Each year we have the tradition of making Christmas handprint pillows for the children to give their parents.  This year we came up with an angel design.  We cut a sponge to paint the blue body and one to paint the head.  Then we painted each child's hands and pressed their prints on. We added a glitter paint halo and the year and the child's name.  Then we sewed them up and the children wrapped them for their parents.

Reindeer Drawing

 We loved our guided reindeer drawing project.  After talking about the parts of a reindeer, the children were shown a simple way that they could draw their own reindeer.

They were given a piece of black oil pastel chalk and drew.

 When they were finished, they got a paintbrush and water colors to paint their reindeer.  We used watercolor paper so that the paint and colors would absorb.  These reindeer turned out amazing and the children loved it.

Jackson Pollock Paintings

Jackson Pollock is famous for his famous line paintings so we tried them ourselves.  We set this up by pouring red, yellow and blue tempura paint in our paint trays.  Then each child had a large piece of white construction paper and a craft stick with a piece of yarn attached.  

 The children got to dip their yarn in the paint and then slide it along their paper.  You can see that we tried using bowls for the paints first.  We found that it was much easier to put the paint in the trays shown above.  Then children could reach all of the colors.

 We also found that getting the yarn wet before they began painting helped it absorb the paint better.

Shiny Trout (Or Any Fish You Choose)

 Here is our project that we did when we learned about rainbow trout.  After the children had seen, touched, fished, tasted and looked at lots of trout, they got to use pastel chalks to make their own rainbow trout.

 They used the chalks to fill in the shape however they wanted.  When they were finished, we poured about 3 tablespoons of corn syrup on their trout.  Then they used a medium sized paintbrush to spread it around.  The trout needed to dry for about 3 days, but when they were finished, it created a very lovely shiny fish!

Painted Branches

 When looking for an idea for our theme of Nature, we decided to PAINT IT!

 We brought in branches and provided the children with glitter paint.  (Note the paint bottles that we are using.  These are absolutely the best and can be found at Discount School Supply).

 The children loved the novelty of painting the branches and many talked of painting their trees at home.

 The branches have adorned our classroom windows ever since.

Fire Houses

 Trying to create an art activity  to go with Fire Safety is always a challenge.  We recently tried this and it worked perfectly.  Each child got to draw a house on a piece of finger painting paper.

 Then we placed a few dots of red paint on their page for them to finger paint.  When that was spread, we added yellow and orange for all the colors of fire.

 Now it is certainly time to call 911.