Cauliflower Projects 5 & 6

Another one? I'm telling you, this veggie is more than just tasty! Project Five:
Set out new paper, new brushes and that nifty, nifty core of cauliflower. For this project you are going to have your kidlets paint directly onto the bottom of the core. If you look closely you can see that the top of the core allows for a good grip so that the painted part becomes a stamp of sorts. They can paint it with one color or multiple colors or paint and wash and paint again. Really, just have them paint it.
Have your wee ones paint and then stamp onto their paper. They may want to make a picture, that is fine. If you want to do project six you can have them stamp their blobs a wedge away from each other with no overlapping. Set aside to dry and get ready for the final project!
Project Six:
Cut out each blob your kidlet painted and adhere to dark cardstock.Have your wee ones turn their blobs into monsters, space creatures and animals using the markers. Cut out of dark cardstock so that you have a border around the creatures.Glue to a craft stick or other stick and you now have cauliflower monster puppets! See? I told you this would be nutty. Who knew you could do so much with a cauliflower?

Cauliflower Projects Two, Three & Four

This one involves the leaves of the plant. You can of course do this with any type of non-poisonous leaf. Have fun!

Same set up as before, only hand your wee ones a paintbrush. Get out those leaves and have your wee ones arrange the leaves onto their paper. You may want to tack the leaves down a smidge with a loop of tape or a dot of glue stick.Once the leaves are arranged, have your wee ones paint over the paper so that the leaves act as a stencil. When they are done, remove the leaves and set aside, don't throw them away! If you use a large enough sheet of paper, you have some nifty gift wrap!
Project Three:
Paint with the painted leaves! Huh? Remove the painted leaves from the stenciled picture and flip them over so that the paint side is facing down.Lay on top of a new sheet of paper and press firmly so that an imprint is left behind. Do this until there is no more paint on the leaves and set the leaves aside for project four. Try to use the leaf imprints to create an object, shape or person. Have fun with it!

Project Four:
Make a collage with the painted leaves. I know, nutty, right? Pass out some cardboard cut from cereal boxes or maybe a paper plate, or heavy cardstock and have your wee ones make a painted leaf collage.

You may want to use regular school glue for this one. You can also use pre-cut cardstock folded in half and have them make thank you cards are "just because" cards.

Next up, stamping with the cauliflower core!

Play with your food!

Well, only some of it. The other day I was in the kitchen chopping away at a head of cauliflower when I looked into the scrap bowl and saw all these possibilities. I now bring to you an assortment of projects come to life by this underrated vegetable. Who knows? Maybe your wee ones will actually eat it after all is said and done and painted with, on and around!First up, paint with cauliflower! When you trim all those bits and pieces of for your food making adventures, you end up with a lovely core, smaller bits of stem and some nifty green leaves and such. I've got five projects for you using your scraps so stay tuned! Let's have some fun!

Materials:

*cauliflower scraps

*paper of your choice; recycled, cardboard or paper bags

*paint such as a washable tempera or an acrylic if you're brave

*paintbrushes

*tray or plate or palette for paint

scrumdilly-do it!

Project One:

Set up the workspace with paper and add your paints to the tray or plate. Set out a bowlful of cauliflower scraps and challenge your kidlets to paint a picture using only the scraps.

The best option for this project is the dip and paint.Limit your color palette to a few colors that mix well and you can avoid a glob of brown goo. Set aside to dry and you have a lovely abstract painting.This will also work with other veggie scraps. If you're planning on making veggie scrap soup by all means make the soup instead! See ya tomorrow for more cauliflower fun!

With a tweak, tweak, here...

(photo property of Lydia at Litttle Blue School)

You have got to love this vast, vast world also known as the internet. Check out how blogger Lydia of Little Blue School approached our art in parts project, she added words! Yay Lydia! Read more about it here. Thank you Lydia for sharing this with the 'do. We love sharing so don't forget to share with us what your interpretations of our projects look like. We can't wait!

Spoil Them Rotten!

For fun or for no reason at all! I did this with the traditional sugar overload of ice-cream and candy, but you can do this with yogurt, graham crackers & cool whip, bread & butter, cupcakes or giant cookies.

 

 You do not by any means have to use all the sugar I did, use happy cereal, nuts, dried fruit and fresh fruit instead. Always, always, always remember the age of your kidlets and what they can and can not eat. I know YOU know this but just in case your wee ones have a friend who is younger make sure to think age appropriate sweets. it's a no brainer I know but we all forget sometimes.

 I had wanted to do this in pretty, happy bowls or cups but forgot to bring my own and was at the work house so I decided to use a happy fun plastic tray and cupcake liners. Oh how I love me a cupcake liner! So have fun, get creative and as always, take pictures!

Paint with dots! Lotsa lotsa dots!

Here are some pics from a recent class I taught. We did all of our "painting" and printmaking using items that would produce a dot. We first talked about Pissaro and Seraut and pointillism and then started with index cards and toothpicks.We worked our way up to larger cards and q-tips, paintbrush tips and crayon tips.
Then we got bigger and used the rims of cups and glasses and I passed out the parts of a chopped up swim noodle.

Things got a little wacky when we tried dotting our papers with marbles. The marbles took on a life of their own and produced some nifty experimentation! Have fun and don't limit yourself. Have your wee ones go on a circle hunt in the house to look for household items that would produce a circle. Start with a reading of the dot and have fun!

(corn) Pop Art!

Last week I taught an art class for kidlets that focused on Andy Warhol. We looked at a book of his art work and talked about the art behind everyday packaging. I explained that everything we purchase that comes in a package, comes in a package that was designed by an artist. We talked about the soup can and how Warhol took something simple and mundane and turned it into something extraordinary. I wanted to put it into their heads that art is all around us and sometimes all it takes is another person's vision to show us.

After we talked and looked and talked some more, I set out some large sheets of paper. I intended to use large sheets of canvas paper but that got left at the casa so we had to use what we had on hand. Next up, each kidlet picked out an empty wee cereal carton. You can do this project with any type of packaging you like. I adore the small cereal boxes!

We sat for a few moments and discussed our boxes. We talked about the colors used, the words and the design. I gave each kidlet a piece of matte board to use as a palette and asked them what color they wanted to use as their background. I also gave them some white and some black and we talked about mixing different shades of the same color. Most couldn't wrap their heads around the idea of mixing black with another color. I did my best to encourage them but didn't push.

 

 Rollers were past out along with paint brushes and the background work began.

Next up, we coated the back of the cereal box with tacky glue and the kidlets placed them on their papers. Then we headed out to play for awhile to let the paint dry.

Once the paint was dry, another color was chosen and a word was picked out from the cereal box. Each kidlet painted their word wherever they chose onto their paper and we ended up with a nifty assortment of cereal pop, Pop Art!


I can't wait to see what you and yours come up with!

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!

Thank You

Thank you kindly for all the sweet and thoughtful words. Like I said, I'm getting back in the swing and will have a boredom buster post later today or early tomorrow for you. If ya wanna get a head start, fish around your home for a stack of index cards, any size, lined or unli8ned. Happy June!

Almost back in the swing here...

Please accept my apologies for the absence of posts here at scrumdilly-do! The month of May proved to be a difficult time for me as my dear Grandmother passed away. I had been her caregiver for the last eight years and a large part of my life revolved around her. The loss, though expected (she was 95!), swallowed me up and from there I got sick and then sicker and then sick again followed by the start of a summer job.With that put out there for you, I would like to take a moment, a single post to encourage you to introduce the topic of death and dying to your wee ones. It doesn't have to be done in a lesson plan kind of way but don't shy away from it. Children have an enormous capacity for empathy and understanding. Keep your mind and your heart open to discussing it when it is appropriate and when the topic comes up. Look for those "teachable moments" whether they include the loss of a pet, an encounter with a dead bird, a squashed bug, a dying plant or a playmate's loss. I once had a young child in my care suddenly start crying on the drive to school. when I asked what was happening she told me she didn't want her mother to die. Since I was driving I had to figure out a way to comfort her with words and so I acknowledged her sadness and asked her why she was thinking of it at that moment. From there we discussed ideas of death and dying. she told me all about her idea of heaven and what she wanted and after a while the tears went away, though I think mine began after I dropped her off as it was a wonderfully beautiful moment. If a child brings the topic up first, listen to them and ask questions. Figure out where the worry is coming from. Don't explain too much, embrace the moment. If you are interested in book titles dealing with loss and grief, you can find a listmania list here. The picture above is the cover a recently read title that I stumbled upon a few months ago. Is Grandpa Wearing a Suit? is a beautiful and melancholy story and I think some children will respond well to it. I always tend to lean towards the "have your books ready BEFORE you need them" route. It takes the mystery and some of the scariness out of the topics.

I hope to add some fun soon to the blog. I've got some more strawberry basket ideas kicking around in my head. Now I need to find the time to DO them! Thank you for hanging in there with me!