paint with veggies

veggies, and blossoms...chive blossoms... 

I tried my best to match paint to veggie colors but couldn't bear to add brown for the mushroom 

which seemed to be a favorite non-brush brush...

squishy art

I don't have any photos of the finished projects but really, it doesn't much matter how it all looks as much as how it felt making them.

First the children selected the paint they wanted to use...usually  ALL of the colors...then they applied their "squeezing muscles" to pop the pretty paint all over their paper.

When they were ready, the slected a sheet of cling wrap and carefully palced it over the top of their paper and got to squishing it all up. They children were astounded that no paint got on their hands! Some smoothed the paint out from the center. Others used fingertips to poke and prod. All of them had a lot to say. Most of the papers ended up drying with the cling wrap on top. The children had so much fun doing this they even added another layer (or two) of paint and cling wrap. Yay for process!

paint with straws

windy art via Handmade Kids Art blog

My co-teacher found this nifty project on Handmade Kids Art blog and was so taken with it, she tried it out with her class. I was so taken with it, we did it in my class as well. The children really enjoyed it!

The first step is to imagine what the wind would look like if you could see it. The children used markers to show what their wind would look like.

Next up, the children selected a paint color and squirted it onto their tray and used their fingers to replicate what they drew on their papers.

After they used their fingers to draw the wind on their trays, they flipped their paper onto the paint, marker side down, to pull a print. We give them the vocabulary such as print pulling, etc. to let them know their art is valid. Once they pull their print, they use glue to adhere three dimensional elements of wind such as yarn and feathers.

Aren't they happy? It was very interesting to watch the children follow the steps to their own tune. The dialog that went on was a lot of fun as well. Thank you Handmade Kids Art for sharing your projects!