let them mix paint!

art supply storage, a work in progress

We have open shelves in the classroom that we use to store the art supplies we use most often. Paint, glue, paper, paint cups, etc. are all housed here.

For the past few years we have been using these decorative plastic bins I foudn at various dollar style stores. While handy, they are visual clutter with all the different colors. We have greem pink, orange, blue...yikes!

For our work day, I picked upa couple cans of grey spray paint to pant the bins so they would all be the same color. While it's not my dream storage, it will do for now.

Not too bad. I want to switch out the fabric bins for all grey, we use them to store the children's rest items. My dream to switch out all the plastic for wicker and rattan baskets. It might get spendy, but I think I am going to start looking for some. Can you imagine how pretty it would be?

end of year tea party

strawberry themed cuteness 

with real tea cups, saucers, and tea! 

eats fit for a tea...

and of course we dress up

as our favorite book characters...

such as lions who paint...

strawberries in disguise...

or lions who are friends with mice...

classroom canvases

One of the ways I build community in the classroom is through our classroom canvases. Each child gets a flat canvas to create art on but with a twist. The owner of the canvas gets to choose the colors and paints the base however they wish.

We use acrylic paints for our canvases which elevate the process for the children. I keep the acrylics in a cardboard suitcase so they know something fun is afloat when it makes an appearance. Once the original coat is dry, the owner of the canvas selects a new color or two for a classmate to use on their canvas. For me, the fun part is switching out the tools the children use. I place a variety of tools on a tray and the painter selects which one they wish to use. This helps to keep the canvas from getting muddy while alerting the child that this is mindful work.

Some of the tools we've used are strawberry baskets, q-tips, pieces of cardboard, dollar store massage rollers, tp tubes, cups, sponges, toys, the bottoms of cups, toothbrushes, and our fingers.

The evolution of each canvas is pretty magical. We paint on them throughout the year so some may have layers and layers on them, while others might not.

paper plate lions

How cute are these lions? Our paper plate lions are a preschool craft project that gathers the kiddos into a group to work on skills such as cutting, glueing, and following instructions. I want to add that this is not an everyday deal that I do in my classroom. Most of the time we are mixing paint and creating our own art experiences. Sometimes we gather around so I can quickly assess who may need encouragment or who may need a new challenge. We never push and if a child has other plans or really does not want to do the project then that's okay. There a multitude of other ways to see where they are at. A craft such as this is cute and is a fun take home for parents to display. I mean, who wouldn't want a three-eyed lion on their fridge?

Paper plates are a fun and inexpensive resource for kiddo to create with. They are sturdy enough to hold ALL the paint, and have an interesting texture to them. Childre ncan cut them to create other tings, and they are happy to have paint, glue, crayon, marker, pencil, and even play dough spread over them.

Here we have a blue lion, a pink lions, a four-eyed lion, and a classic one or two in the mix. Once the paint dried, the kiddos added mouths or mustaches or design using the much coveted sharpie.

Sometimes though, I have to admit, it;s the paint messy brushes I swoon over.

mother's day brooches part 1

This year for Mother's Day I wanted to try something that could be worn outside of Mother's Day and landed on a painted floral pin.

I cut our a variety of flower shapes in different sizes with the idea that the children would select their pieces, smallest to largest...staple them together, then add paint before blinging them out with all sorts of sparkly goodness. This last unpainted flower was my sample. 

We used liquid watercolor to paint the flowers. I demonstrated how to wet the flower by submerging it into a tray of water. A few of the kiddos really got a kick out of that part, so they would paint their flower, submerge it to rinse it off, then paint again.

They came out even better than I had imagined! I think my favorites are of the flowers that got rinsed multiple times. The layers of color are so pretty. Stay tuned to see how they all turned out! I can't remember if I got photos of the children adding their bling or not but I do have final product pics!

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!