foil tape resist rainbows

This was a last minute project, one of those where you fly by the seat of your pants. I wanted to set up a rainbow painting station but we had already had our dot markers at the easel and our rainbow paints at the easel. I had a short stack of cardboard left over from another project and some foil left over from our painting with cars activity and thought to wrap the foil around the cardboard and see what the kiddos come up with.

 

After giving each paint cup a hefty dose of dish soap, I spied our roll of painter's tape and thought "Oh, yes, the kiddos will love this". My class kids adore tape, They love to wrap things and stick tape onto paper both for fun and for painting over so the set up was had.

We did this in both of our classes of three year olds and the variety of fun was lovely. Most of the children taped up their foil all willy-nilly and then painted all over it. There were quite a few brown paintings to be had as well and there were a few lovely rainbows all arced up and painted in rainbow order. I love how each kiddo takes a process and makes it their own. I wish I had photos of the finished. I'm pretty sure I do but I can't find them. Once I do though, I will post them. they were so happy! 

**Don't forget to add dish soap to the paint so it sticks. We used painter's tape and tempera colors. The children loved peeling off the tape almost as much as putting it on.

painting cloudscapes

The children in my class love to paint and we always have paint and paper on the easel ready for them. When we set up tabletop provocations we use a better quality paper primed for whichever type of paint we are going to use. When using watercolors I use watercolor paper that has been trimmed of perforations if needed. For our cloudscapes, the children drew their clouds with fat white crayons and then painted with a variety of blues and greys which had been watered down at different levels. Some of the children drew fat circles for their clouds while others scribbled circles across their paper. We had a selection of cloud photos on the table for inspiration. When using watercolors with the children we carefully explain the importance if treating the paintbrush and paper gently as well as keeping the rinse water clean so as not to muddy the colors. When the children want to do color mixing we switch out the paintbrushes and paper  and sometimes even the paint though eyedroppers make for great tools on color mixing watercolors!

landscapes with preschoolers

For our week of We're Going on a bear Hunt, the plan was to create a landscape for each element in our story. But we all know how sometimes things do not always go the way planned so we only got to two landscapes but really it was because the children had so much fun with the paint and supplies. We did tackle mud and snow through our sensory bins using potting soil from our yard, and insta-snow in the classroom. For the record, I am not a fan of the insta-snow, it's a sensory thing for me....ack!

Here a small selection of what the children created. Some were painted up on our easel, some at our art center, some a little of both. The green landscapes were made with paint and crepe party streamers. I had put the paint out in small cups with a variety of paintbrushes (some too large for the cups!) to see what the children would do. The blue landscapes all have the added element of epsom salts, clear glitter, and plastic wrap. Some of the landscapes were painted with our tempera paint while others were painted with our liquid watercolors.

Going on a Bear Hunt: painting with natural elements

The children in my classroom really love the story We're Going on a Bear Hunt. We often reenact it throughout the week when someone is reminded of the swishy-swashy of traveling through grass or the stumble-trip of hiking through the storybook forest. We talk about natural elements around the classroom and in our community. While we do not really have snow, we do have creeks, the ocean, tiny rivers, forests and tall grass so all of the elements in the story are very familiar to the children. One of the activities I had set up at our easel was painting with sticks, leaves, grass, and flowers. We decided to use these paintbrushes to create our grass and/or landscapes so the children, after discussing the colors found in the tall, tall grass and dark forests, decided on green and yellow.

There were many returns to the easel. Some children used each paintbrush on a separate part of their painting, others mixed it up while others focused on just one brush. The focus and attention they exhibited was a treat to behold and extended to the children to who prefer to roll and fold up their very wet and paint-sticky paintings. So much investigation going on!

painting with marbles

the set up

a squeeze or two of paint

give it a tilt

investigate and tilt some more

add more paint if you need it and tilt away...

the three billy goats gruff: blotto trolls

 

This smoosh art project was a hit with both classes. Many of the children made an entire army of trolls. The process is the same for any smoosh art (aka blotto and/or  blobs), fold paper in half, work on one side, fold and smoosh. To create our trolls, the children added geometric features that were pre-cut and piled onto a tray. The paint was wet enough that all they had to do was select, arrange and push into the paint...no glue needed. Some of the children had specific wants for shapes and colors, others cut their own shapes. This is a great companion project for our week of The Three Billy Goats Gruff. As we worked on our trolls, we talked about symmetry and planning...too much paint oozes out of the edges, too little doesn't smoosh enough. The children really went to town and I wish I had more photos of their awesome trolls!

three kittens: painting with yarn

Here is another art table set up we had during our week of The Three Little Kittens. Painting with yarn!

 

Large paper was set out with a tray and some paint. The children selected the paint colors as a group before getting down to business. I explained that instead of paintbrushes we would be using yarn. I did not go into anymore detail than that. I did however, fold the paper in half to see what the children would do and/or say about the crease.

 

Funnily enough, no one said anything about the crease. They just sat down and got to work. Some did one dribble of yarn while others switched to mittens or just popped their hands into the paint.

We had done some symmetrical pictures before in class so the children knew about the painting on one side aspect of this project. In different art books they would suggest you place your yarn on the paper, fold it in half then gently pull the paint ladden piece of yarn out to create a squiggle pattern. Some of the children popped their yarn down onto the paper, folded, then smoothed their hands over the paper. Later in the day, I asked what would happen if we pulled the string out before unfolding the paper? One enterprising young one tried it and this is what happened.

three kittens: more mitten fun

 

 The children selected a large sheet of construction paper in the color of their choice. I drew a mitten shape onto the paper in a color of their choice then they went to town with our oil pastels. Some chose to add white paint. I wish I had pictures, they were really fun and the children love a resist project.

 

 

Here we began with some pre-drawn mittens but the children wanted to make their own so we talked about how we made out patterns for our stitched mittens. They then put their hands on the paper while we traced around them. The children added scribbles with the oil pastels and then painted over them with liquid watercolor in their choice of color. As you can see, purple is really popular in our classroom.

the three little kittens: painting with mittens

 

We had two weeks of mitten fun in our classroom. It was all mittens all the time. Our mitten painting accompanied The Three Little Kittens and after they mittens were all paint-goopy, the kiddos got to wash them in a tub of soapy water.

I made our mittens out of a sweatshirt I picked up from the thrift for $2. I used the patterns we made from when we stitched our own mittens and zipped these through my sewing machine. These will get double play next year when we read The Mitten. I also made some from my very favorite now-retired orange muppet sweater...sigh. I set up the table with paper, trays for paint, and a shallow basket full of mittens so that the children could pick out the mitten they wanted to use.

 

After the children chose their paint colors they got work. There was a lot of investigation even before the first print was made.

 

Some made prints across their paper (after asking for more paint). They would comment on how the colors looked on the mitten versus their paper and they would tell me how their hands felt warm in the mitten but cool when the paint seeped through. We talked about how two weeks before we used mittens in our water tray when there were big blocks of ice in it and how at first our hands were protected and warm but then the water seeped in and our hands got cold.

 

It was really fun to watch the variety of techniques the children used for this project. Some chose just one or two colors to start but kept adding more as they painted. Some made prints while other used their mitten hands as paint brushes swiping and dragging the paint across their paper. They had a lot of fun and took these home right away as well so sadly I have no finished photos.

painting christmas trees on the easel

I put out paint in Christmas Tree colors at our easel. I asked if the children wanted to paint a picture of a Christmas tree. This is what I found on the easel, star on top and all.