Wednesday, August 20, 2014

making twirly art {using what you have}


I think it is safe to say that I am not the only preschool teacher who holds onto odd bits of scrap paper and other flotsam and jetsam I come across.  In my classroom one of the children's favorite activities to use the salad spinner to make art. Sometimes we use coffee filters in our spinner but with some prep time, I find that the centers of paper plates work best for durability. After I cut out all those circles I am left with a pile of paper plate rims that have just enough curl and twirl in them that I came up with this project that the children call twirlies.
All you need is a paper plate rim, any size, paint, and glitter. When the art is going to be super messy, I will lay put a sheet of wax paper for the children to use as an art mat. Wax paper is great for sticky gooey art projects because you can move the whole shebang to a safe place for drying and the art (mostly) won't stick to the paper. The wax paper also keeps any glue or paint from drip dropping all over your tabletops or, in our case, windowsills.
 
My kiddos absolutely adore glitter...and paint...and sweeping up with the dustpan. I keep the dustpan on our counter between the refrigerator and microwave and each kiddo in my class knows where it is stored and freely uses it to clean up the riff-raff that falls on our floor. They also return it to its spot when they finish. I think this young lady spent more time engaged in sweeping up than she did sprinkling glitter all over her twirlie. The finished twirlies were hung on our art wire across our room and/or under our windowsills, the children chose where they wished for them to be hung and were quite proud of their creations.

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