Drippy, shiny milk pictures

Since we are learning about cows today (within our "Old MacDonald's Farm" unit).....we had our activities based around "Milk". So at our art table we painted with drippy shiny milk!!

Basically, this is sweetened condensed milk with food coloring. I mixed three different bowls with red, blue, and yellow food coloring.

Once they are done painting, we hung them on the wall to watch them slowly drip! The kids thoroughly enjoyed this......."Wow, mine has dripped all the way to the bottom!" "My blue is dripping", "My yellow is beating my blue". I also tried to begin conversation about the mixing of the primary colors - what new colors are appearing?

Some kids enjoyed mixing them all at once for a beautiful brown color. Then folding their paper in half for some symmetry. Awesome! We had a fun painting day today!

ABC Painting

Today we had fun painting with the alphabet. Simply put the colors of tempera paint you want on some paper plates, be sure to have trays and smocks handy (easier clean-up), then all you need are some ABC cookie cutters.......the kids dip them in the paint and place them on their paper.

Be prepared for some teacher guidance as you discuss the letters they are stamping, or words they are even writing. This is a great activity to build your childs literacy!!

Transportation brush painting

For this activity, you'll need different sized brushes and about 4 or 5 different colors of paint and paper!

Simply put the materials out and let the children paint pictures of anything they want. We have obviously been talking about transportation and it seems what we are learning about is where a lot of the children's interests lead. I like to sit with them and discuss what they are painting, what they know about it, why the like it, and I add in little bits of information that they will help their interest grow......it's called teacher guidance and it's wonderful!!!

Brush painting is one of the most child centered, open ended, creative activities you can offer a group of preschoolers. In my classroom, whenever we have brush painting, the children can paint zero or ten pictures a day. I leave it up to them and I don't try and dictate a theme, but it often goes toward what we are learning about. The children may extend our "theme" into the experience for themselves. Or, they may just want to paint a picture of something that happened to them at home and that's great too!!

Happy painting!!

Transportation magazine collages

Hello to all - FINALLY again! We've had quite a week around here...my 9 month old got RSV and was in the hospital for about 5 days. Thank goodness that is over and now I am BACK!! Hurray!

This week we are moving on with our themes to Transportation! At the art table we made collages by cutting out pictures from magazines that were "transportation" pictures. I save my kids magazines I get and catalogs for cutting up in preschool.

There was so much discussion about what is or is not a transportation picture. Some of the kids were laughing up a storm, "A banana is NOT transportation - that is so silly!" What cuties.

We also talked about all of the different types of transportation we each had and ones we wish we could try. We had a lot in common with bikes, our own legs, cars or trucks, scooters, roller skates, etc. It also seemed that we had a lot in common on what we WISHED we could do.....hot air balloons, trains, tractors, BIG boats, etc.

The cutting that happens in this activity is so great for small motor development and the children really get to start using their thinking skills to look for a "specific" picture throughout the magazines!!

happy transporting!

Salty Snow Prints

I got this idea from Blissfully Domestic, and the children ABSOLUTLEY loved this activity. Many of the children didn't want to do anything else BUT this during our choice time today!!

Have the children draw a simple picture of their choice and then trace that picture with white glue. Make sure the paper is on some type of tray to catch the excess salt. The children can then spoon the salt onto their glue. Then simply dump the excess salt back into the bowl and VOILA - you've got yourself a beautiful Salty Snow Print!

The greatest thing about this project is that you probably have these simple ingredients on hand, HURRAY!!

Sparkling Winter Collages

I sat a variety of materials out at the art table today.....cotton balls, sequins, googly eyes, glittler, styrofoam, etc. The children enjoyed making winter scenes and collages of all sorts.

What a great way to use imaginations and also self expression!!

Snowflakes

Since we are learning about Winter and how cold it is outside at our art table today we made our own snowflakes!! No two snowflakes are alike. They are all hexagonal (have 6 sides). The designs formed depend on the weather patterns in the atmosphere at the time. Snow that falls through warmer air builds up more elaborate patterns.

We used paper today, but you can also use coffee filters (easier for the younger kids) and scissors. Sit with them and let them watch as you fold a coffee filter and cut holes along the sides and from the middle. Unfold the filter slowly to reveal the "snowflake". Then, encourage them to try.

If you don't have coffee filters, here is a link on how to fold paper to make a perfect snowflake, they give some great examples. When you use paper, be prepared to fold the snowflakes for some of the children, many children will just want to experiment on their own, but others will really want it to be like a snowflake. The cutting is great motor development for these little ones and also eye-hand coordination!!

The World of Music

So you probably guessed, today we learned about our sense of hearing! What a great and noisy classroom we had today!! It's so fun to explore with sounds!

We decorated our own rhythm sticks so the children could go home and have so much fun showing their families all the great music they can make!!

I just bought big dowels and cut them into the same size of pieces and sanded the ends.

WA LA!!

We also made our own shaker bags. I usually use paper plates but to my dismay this morning we were out. Serves me right for not checking the night before (I thought for sure I had some - oopsie!!). So I compromised and made paper bag shakers which turned out great because they have a handle when you roll them up and make a great sound - hmmmm, I might have to make those again!! We were able to go on a listening walk and we heard things like, an airplane, dog barking, bee buzzing, footsteps, tree shaking, and more - I love to teach the children that when we listen we learn more about everything around us!! They get so excited to start listening better (even if it's just for that first minute after I tell them :) For snack we had squeaky cheese - yummy! I'm surprised every year I have a couple of kids that don't like it....but it does have a little different taste to it. Remember to try and keep it at room temp. or a little warmer if you want to really hear it squeak!! Happy noise making!!

Sun Catchers

If you didn't guess, today we are learning about our sense of SIGHT!! Our suncatchers were so cool to make and watch in front of a window. You can use transparency paper (which would probably be the best to use) or use what you have on hand like me and use plastic paper holders.

I basically set out permanent markers and the plastic paper holders and the kids did beautiful art work on these. I was really amazed at some of their drawings!! Then just hook a string to the already punched holes and hang them up in front of the window for the sun to shine in on them. It's fun to see the sun get caught on the paper and be blocked out where the drawings are.

Sniffable Art

We are learning about our five senses the next couple of weeks......and today we talked about SMELL!!

I wanted to do a bit more with this project, but I could NOT find any scratch and sniff stickers!! So we compromised.......we used smelly markers (you know the kind you can sniff - yummy!), perfume/cologne and then regular markers and crayons.

The kids went to town on creating their pictures and choosing the perfume (the teacher was in charge of spraying:) to go on their masterpieces. It was fun to see what the scents made them think of (lots of fruits and different foods).

We are also discovering more about the letter 'Aa', so I also sat out some A's they could color and practice writing if they wanted. Most of the kids chose to work on the Aa's. It's so fun to try something new as a child.

HAPPY SMELLING!!

Painting with Variation

Today we had painting with a different variety of paintbrushes. It's so fun to paint and explore with paintbrushes that a different!

This really allows the children to think in ways they might not have before! So lets unleash that creativity - PAINT!!

Creative Sticker Names

At the beginning of the year I always start with getting to know our own and each others names better. I especially want the children to experiment with their own name, figure out what letters are in it, how they are shaped, what their name looks like, etc. Many preschoolers don't know how to write their names yet, and what a better way to learn out then through art and play!!

I printed off each child's name on the computer, set out stickers of all kinds and crayons. This seems pretty simple, but it was also a great success. I saw so many great things going on from tracing, to copying, to outlining the letters with stickers, and simply coloring in their name. All of these outcomes are ways children get more familiar with their name and eventually learn how to write it!! Happy name writing!!

Watercolor Wonder

It doesn't matter how much paint I put out through the year, the children never tire of it...and why would they, painting is simply AWESOME!! I change it up each time even if it's a simple change like, shape of paper, type of paint brushes, type of paint, how we paint, etc. Preschoolers NEED to paint!!

Preschool Painting

It's always fun to start preschool off with painting. It's something that is usually familiar to all of the children, and also something they absolutley LOVE!! If it's simply filling the whole paper up with colors until they turn black, or actually making a picture - to a preschooler, it's all the same and should be viewed as the same also. It's the experience they are getting, not what they are turning it into!!

Happy Painting!

Spring Window Mosaics

Need a little spring decoration......perfect!!!

Get some crayons, a cheese grater, wax paper, and a hot iron. It's so fun to watch the crayons melt and mix colors under the wax paper.

Just grate some bright spring colors of crayons, have your child sprinkle it onto their waxed paper. Fold the wax paper in half and run the iron over it. They can cut out their own decoration or you can draw a spring object for them to cut out.

In preschool we simply cut out flowers. Some of them ended up looking like clouds, but you get the idea.

Hang them up in your window and let the sun shine through and brighten up your house!!

Spring Finger Painting

With spring comes lots of color!! It's so fun to take a look around and see what colors are coming out!! What a better way to celebrate the colors of spring then with some fun and messy and colorful fingerpainting!!

To make this fingerpaint all you need is......

* 1 cup flour

* 1 cup water

* 1 tblsp liquid laundry detergent (this helps it come out easily from clothing)

* food coloring

Stir these ingredients together in a bowl until smooth. Seperate into different bowls with however many colors you are going to use and stir until mixed to your desired coloring!!

St. Patricks Day Lucky Shamrocks

For St. Patricks Day today we made lucky shamrocks out of crepe paper. We talked a lot about luck and what it means. We went on a treasure hunt looking for gold rocks and got pretty "lucky"!! We did all sorts of things having to do with GREEN!!

For our shamrocks, I simply cut out a shape of a 4-leaf clover and had green crepe paper cut in squares set out. The children chose to put them on collage style or twisting the squares around a pencil and sticking them on.....the results were very creative!

When I Grow Up.......

We're finishing up our unit on careers and I had the kids draw a picture of what they thought they might want to be when they grow up. I absolutley LOVE children's illustrations. Many of the kids also wanted to write what they wanted to be all by themselves!! I'm so proud of their progress and all of the learning that I see is so exciting!!

Painting Fire

We were learning all about what policeman and firefighters do. The kids really enjoyed painting fire flames which corresponded with what firefighters do. I basically cut out fire flames and set out yellow and red paint for the children to paint with.

"Firefighters are so brave!"