Colorful Christmas Trees

These trees turned our so adorable.  Each child was given a paper that had a brown trunk glued onto it.  The teacher wondered how she could make it into a beautiful tree.  The children said that it was missing its branches.  Fortunately, we had three sizes of colorful branches cut out and ready to use!
We showed the children how we could put the longest ones on the bottom of the tree and then the medium sized ones in the middle, and finally the smallest ones on top.

The variety of cut paper were placed in the middle of the table for the children to use.

They really concentrated as they chose their colors and sizes for their trees.

When the trees were finished, each one was colorful, unique and beautiful!

 

Turkeys

Adorable Thanksgiving turkeys.

for this project, each child was given a turkey body to cut out.  (We are continually working on cutting skills for our class.)  Then they glued on eyes, beak and feet.  When that was complete, the teacher stapled a large coffee filter that was folded in half to the turkey.

Liquid watercolorw were in ice cube trays and the children had small pipettes.  They were able to squeeze out the small drops of colors onto their turkeys and watch the colors blend and change.

The children loved doing this project and were very excited to take their turkeys home.

Tear Art Owls

When we learned about owls we made these cute tear art owls.  Colored paper (browns, black, white and gray) was cut into strips and put on the tray.  Yellow eyes, orange beaks and orange strips for the legs were also on the tray.  The children had various pictures of owls to look at. 

They drew a white circle on their paper and then got to fill it in with the colors they wanted for their owl.  The tore the papers into smaller pieces.  Tearing can be a challenge for many children so you will want to watch for those who need extra guidance.  The children glued their pieces on and then added eyes and a beak and feet.

Great horned owl.

Burrowing owl

Snowy owl

Snowy owl

 '
Screech owl

They all turned out so adorable!

Painted Penguins

 

When we learned about penguins in preschool, the children painted their very own penguin.

We had talked about penguin bodies and penguin habitats.  We pointed out how penguins have round heavy bodies and short wings.  As a class we learned how penguins and birds are the same and different.

The children used black, orange and blue paint to create their penguins. Then they used cottonballs for the ice and snow.  You will notice that this boy even painted the baby penguin egg that the daddy penguin holds.

 

When the projects were finished, we had some of the cutest penguins on the planet!

Group Zoo Project

After learning about zoo animals and zoo keepers, the class worked on a group project to create their own zoo.  They each got to choose an animal (from a selection we had cut out of animal magazines) and their task was to create a habitat for that animal. 

We had supplies such as green paper for grass, blue paper for water, and black for caves or whatever else they needed.  We added popsicle sticks and those were used for everything from gates and fences to trees.

 

The children took their task of creating habitats for their animals very seriously and this was a very effective group project that hung in our room for a long time.

 

Ghost Supper

 We read the story, Ghost Supper, which is a cute book about ghosts who eat colorful foods for supper and change to whatever color the foods were.  Then we showed the children some colorful ghosts and brainstormed foods that those ghosts may have eaten. 

 

The children were then given the opportunity of making their own ghost supper.  They could choose the colors they wanted and they cut their ghosts out and glued them on to paper.

 After they finished their ghosts, they told the teacher what the ghost had eaten.

We ended up with some very colorful and creative projects.

African Tribal Masks

The class made African Tribal Masks as part of learning about the countries of our world.

They turned our unique and adorable.

The children were shown pictures of tribal masks.  The unique designs and colors were pointed out to them and discussed as a group.  Then each child got a paper with an oval shape and two "cut" lines on the top and bottom.  They each got to draw their own designs and were encouraged to use many colors.

Then they used liquid watercolors to paint over their tribal mask.  When they were dry, they were cut out, the teacher cut the line on the top and bottom of the mask and then overlapped them and stapled them to give them a three dimensional appearance.

Camp Fires

These camp fires turned out absolutely darling and again, this was one of those "What can we possibly do for an art project" inventions.
After the teacher had talked about how campfires are made the children got to make their own.  First they drew their rocks for the fire ring. 
Then they tore brown paper for the logs.

 

They added droppers full of yellow, orange and red paint to their papers.

Then used a straw to blow it to make a fire creation.

Afterwards they chose a small stick and put on a marshmallow.  They loved their campfires.
*Original idea from Nola Arko