circle circus

This is a project I did in when I was in first grade class with a visiting art teacher. We created our circles with black paint and used crayon to add our color. I recently happened upon my happy paper of circles and thought how much fun it would be to revisit it with brighter colors and markers for a more fine line feel to it all. Are you ready?

 Materials 

large sheet of sturdy weight paper 

acrylic or tempera paint in three shades of one color 

shallow dish or paper plate 

assortment of cylindrical containers such as yogurt containers, paper cups, etc 

markers

Set up your plates with your paint. Here we used two shades of blue and two different sized containers. Dip your container into the paint. And make a print on your paper.

Repeat the printing process until you have covered your paper with a circus of paint-happy circles. Here is where you can change it up by using only one color, two colors or a trio of happy colors.

Gather your markers and get to doodling. You can have your kiddo stick with dots or stripes or they can jazz up the spaces with squiggles and stars. Use all the colors in the markers pack or use just one or two colors. 

Your kiddos can make one ENORMOUS piece of art or several all summer long. Try making one in each color of the rainbow. Save the artwork and repurpose it as gift wrap. Make a tiny print using a drinking straw for your circles and toothpicks dipped in watercolor for your designs. Happy summer!

dot marker butterflies {a lesson in symmetry}

I thought it would be fun, during our week of The Very Hungry Caterpillar to use dot markers to create symmetrical patterns on butterflies.

I drew the butterflies freehand onto our large white paper (still haven't picked up a code for the copy machine but I'm too busy too get into the office to make copies anyway) with pencil for the first one then used Sharpie over it. I used our window as a lightbox to make copies the old fashioned way but the children were going through them so fast I just drew them when we needed more. Talk about muscle memory, I can probably draw these in my sleep!

As with the magnetic butterflies we talked about symmetry. Some of the children wanted to match what I did so instead, I asked them to make a pattern so I could match theirs. After a few trial runs, the a-ha! moments kicked in and they were having a blast. Now, if only I could figure out how to preserve those sponge tips on the dot markers. Any ideas?

make faux tie-dyed paper flags

 

Here's another project that was inspired by pinterest. There are quite a few pins (and thus, blog posts and videos even) out there relating to this so I cannot attribute it to a single person. Oh and it was also at the San Mateo Maker Faire so there ya go.

 For this project you will need paper, scissors, permanent markers, rubbing alcohol, masking tape, straws or pencils, and either a small misting bottle, ear swap, or eye dropper.

 

Set up in a mess friendly area. I used a vinyl tablecloth with a large sheet of wax paper on top.  To create eight flags you will need a single sheet of white paper 11"X17". You can also use index cards or smaller sheets of paper but I wanted to use a large sheet to get your kiddos into paper folding and cutting on a line. Have your kiddo fold their paper so that they have eight squares. Hand them a pair of scissors and have them cut long the folded lines.

Gather up your permanent markers and get to creating a happy flag. The more marker lines you add, the more blended and colorful your flag will be.

 

Now it is time to add the rubbing alcohol. It goes without saying that you should not leave your child alone while working on this project. The alcohol is a bit intense in scent but so are the markers. It also looks a lot like water so make sure you use a very small container to hold it and never leave your child unattended. The more alcohol that is dripped and dribbled onto the paper, the more it will spread and fade. If you wish for a brighter result, use a cotton swap to "draw" the alcohol onto the marker lines. A fine mister bottle would work as well for older children. Set aside to dry.

 

Once dry, use tape or glue to attach a straw or pencil to the back to create a handle. Ta-da! Fun flags you can wave at your very own Fourth of July parade! Omit the pencils and straws and you cn turn this into a garland by gluing or taping to a couple yards of ribbon.

Make Paper Plate Calaveras Masks!

Like many of my friends and fellow crafty folk, I absolutely adore Halloween but I think I lurve Dia de los Muertos even more! This is the first year in a great many that I was unable to visit Olvera Street in Los Angeles for their Day of the Dead festivities. Since all my stuff is tucked away in a zillion and half boxes I won't be able to make an altar this year but luckily for you, I have whipped up a nifty mask making project using a handful of items you may already have on hand.

Materials:
*paper plates or large round sheets of paper
*popsicle sticks, sticks or pencils
*markers
*black construction paper
*scissors
*tape
*glitter and other shiny bits (optional)

scrumdilly-do it!
Grab a plate and a pencil. Estimate the center of the plate and mark it with your pencil. Your children can do this part, it doesn't have to be EXACTLY center. Using the center dot as your guide, draw two lines intersecting at the center. One line should be vertical, while the other is horizontal, like a cross.
Next, draw two more line using all previous drawn lines as your guide. These two lines will mark an X on your plate and divide up the spaces between the first two lines.
This part sounds trickier than it is so stick with me. You are going to make your skellie cheeks. The first thing you will need to do is position the plate in front of you with the X lines looking like an X. Find the center points on other side of each diagonal line on the bottom half of the plate. Mark with your pencil and then draw an arc from point to point, these are your skellie cheeks!From the top point of each skellie cheek, follow the curve of the paper plate to draw the rest of your skull and cut out.Next up are the eyes and nose of your calavera. You can use a black marker or paint or you can have your wee ones cut shapes from black paper. The nose of your mask should be an upside down heart and the eyes should be large orbs. Use the paint or marker to mark the mouth of your calavera along the vertical ridges of the paper plate. Now it is time to decorate. You can have your kiddos decorate as they will but if you want to make your skull more of a calavera (as traditional as turning a paper plate into a calavera can be) and follow traditional ideas of decorating, chat up your kidlet about symmetry. If you follow any of the links up above you will find a couple of pictures of calaveras and calacas. If you look closely you will notice that most are evenly decorated aka symmetrical. Have your wee one do one side of their skull then have them repeat what they did to the other. Talk it out. See if they find it easy or hard to repeat the patterns. Which hand do they draw with? Have them switch hands for fun. The more color the better. Whatever you choose to do, have fun!Once your calavera is all decked out, you can add finishing touches with glitter and/or sequins. Set aside to dry and tape a popsicle stick or two to the back and you have a happy mask! I did not cut eyes in my mask as they are more decorative than useful but that doesn't mean you can't carefully punch out some eye holes for your kidlet.
Check out these nifty masks made by some scrumdilly-do readers. Thank you for playing along!

These are from Luzia Pimpinella and her kiddos, check out her blog post...And these are from Amber and her kiddos...Aren't they all absolutely fantastic?

another three part project

Just for fun!
I have no name for this project but it can take a while to complete so may be good to bust out when the "I'm bored" chant begins. It also makes for a fun collaborative project if your tots are all levels of ages and developments.

You will need:
One color of dark paint (tempera or acrylic)
White paint (tempera or acrylic)
Paintbrushes
Large sheet of heavy white paper
Paint friendly area
Markers (make sure yer kidlet is ready for these)

scrumdilly-do it!
Grab your sheet of paper and your dark color of paint and have your kidlet cover the entire sheet. You can use a couple of shades here and let yer kidlet mix them up but the idea is to create a solid background. Set aside to dry.Set out the white paint and have your kidlet paint an outline of a picture or shape or design on top of the painted background. Use a fat brush here, you will want the outline to be at least and inch thick. Set aside to dry.Bust out the happy markers and have your wee one doodle, design and draw all along the white paint. Use one color family or mix it up. Try using just black. The idea is to have fun, practice patience and let yer imagination loose. Try it with outlines of large shapes or maybe a silly face. Let your wee one come up with the next step. It's all about the process here.*crayola or kid friendly markers will work on the white paint but their colors will be muted. If your tots are older or you're totally chill about the permanent kind, go ahead and bust those out as they add more pop to the project.

Index Cards Part two

Because there is always room for more index cards projects...this one goes back to my early college art days. I took a two dimensional design course back in the 80's and we did this project first on index cards then on large sheets of paper. Ours were done in black, white and gray but your kidlets may want to use all of their crayons and/or markers. If you do this with crayons or oil pastels and then have them fill in the shapes with water color you will get a nifty collection of textures and colors and it will be that much easier for your wee one to keep the color in the tiny shapes. Remember, this project is best done with your kidlets six and older. You may enjoy it also as it is very soothing to focus on.

What you need:
*index cards any size
*markers or crayons and/or watercolor

scrumdilly-do it:

Set out an index card for your wee one to doodle on. The idea for this is to doodle first one large swirl like line with a loop or two in it. More lines may be added to break up the first and to create more pockets to color in.Next up, start filling in the "pockets" with color. We decided to try using only one color scheme or maybe just five colors. Pick your first color and randomly color in a few of the shapes.Select your next color and do some more.Repeat until you are finished and viola! A nifty colorful stained glass looking piece of tiny art! You can of course do this on larger sheets of paper, the insides of brown bags, back of gift wrap, etc. The larger your paper the more you may want to use paint instead of markers to color in the shapes. Drawing large circular lines in great for those motor skills. Filling in small pockets with color is perfect to perfect those fine motor skills and helps strengthen hand to eye coordination. Have fun!

Boredom Busters-index cards to the rescue!

Howdy all! Here's a quick boredom buster for your wee ones seven and older though some of the younger kidlets may totally be up to this. Remember, YOU know your kidlet best so if these following projects are too much or too little for your kidlets, feel free to adapt them as you will.

Project One: Crazy Creatures

What you need:
*index cards, any size, though the bigger, the better (4 for each creature)
*markers, colored pencils or crayons

scrumdilly-do it!

Each creature should have three or four parts. We used four parts last week but you can easily omit the legs card and turn it into legs and feet. Have your kidlet draw a head on the first card, as centered as they can. The next card gets the torso drawn on, including arms. Card number three is for the legs (or legs and feet if you are only using three cards) and the final card gets feet.Create at least four different creatures so that the mixing up part has more options. On the back of the cards, write out which body part they represent. For example; head, body, legs and feet. Place cards face down on the table top mixing them up. build a creature by randomly drawing 1 of each body part. Flip the cards over to see what you made. For added fun, create a story for each creature with a one or two line sentence for each body part (This is Martin. Martin is afraid of ice cream, He loves to roller skate, his favorite food is toy cars). Place those cards face down, with the body part written on the back and select one from each section. Flip your cards right side up next to the corresponding creature part and read your creature's story out loud. Each time you play, you can create a new story for your creature.

We started with ball point pen but moved on to markers so that the colors would pop. Sometimes we would flip all the cards over and try to rebuild the original creature. I added additional feet and bodies to mix it up a bit. We didn't write our stories down but we did create super powers for them. There are oodles of variations you could do. Try making each creature a specific color and then play a memory version of the game. The first person to create the original monster ends the game. This activity acts as an imagination booster. It includes sequencing skills, small motor skills, hand to eye coordination, memory skills and reading and writing practice. It is also portable! Throw all the cards in a small fabric bag, envelope, tin box, etc and you have a creature lab wherever you go. Add some blank cards and markers and your wee ones can add to the set while you are waiting for an appointment, out to eat or at a friends not-so-kid-friendly home. Have fun!