Self Portraits

We started our preschool program this week with one

of my favorite activities,self portraits. I found these 

cute sturdy kid cut outs at Micheal's. You can always cut your 

own out of card stock. We put out tempera paints and small brushes. 

The kids enjoyed choosing lots of different colors of paint for

their clothes. They chose buttons, hair, wiggly eyes

and mouths(elbow pasta) to finish off their

wonderful self portraits.

Supplies needed

kid cutouts

tempera paints

paint brushes

buttons

hair

mouths

Salt  art

Today we took colored salt and white school glue

and made some interesting art. I started out with bowls of salt,added

 food coloring and mixed the two together using a spoon. After letting the salt dry 

overnight, I poured it into salt shakers. You can  also use jars with holes punched in 

the lid. I have used dollar store salt shakers, baby food jars and  mini jelly jars.

 Today I used my mini salt shakers. The kids took their black paper and laid it in

a shallow box for easy clean-up. I made glue designs for my

3 year old and the older kids made their own glue designs. They had lots

 of fun shaking the salt, and  mixing the colors on their glue. Jovani 

informed the group it was great arm exercising shaking the salt.

 I just love the conversation at the art table!

Supplies needed

salt (and shakers)

food coloring

bowls/spoons

school glue

construction paper

Foil art

We had a great time making foil art Bible verse pictures.
The kids loved using "grownup markers"(sharpies) to color their shapes.
I loved that each picture looked different. First I took pieces of
sturdy cardboard and cut them in half. I then  randomly cut slits along
 the edges of the cardboard and wrapped yarn around the cardboard making sure
 the yarn was in the slits. I then taped the yarn down on the back and
covered the board with foil and taped it down.I showed the kids how to rub
 the foil so they could see yarn lines. Then they went to work coloring in
the shapes. We finished off  by  adding our Bible verse.
 Each masterpiece came out beautiful!
Supplies needed
sturdy card board
foil
yarn
sharpie markers
tape

Junk art

Here in Phoenix we never have snow days, instead we 

have hot days! Today is definitely a hot day (112 degrees) so the

 kids and I have been staying busy making junk collages in

 the cool air conditioned playroom! I put out all 

kinds of junk. Paper scraps, ribbon,buttons, bottle tops, 

pom poms, what ever I could find.I then give the kids card stock 

and white school glue and let them create. They have so much much fun

 using everyday scraps to make pictures. I like to teach a Bible 

verse as the kids are busy gluing. Art time is 

 are a great time for Bible teaching! We stayed busy all afternoon
creating one junk art  masterpiece after another! And I love that
the kids could recite their Bible verse for their
parents at pick-up time!
Supplies needed
card stock paper in assorted colors
white school glue
lots of assorted junk/scraps
Bible verse

Happy Fourth Of July!

I saw this cute idea on pinterest using straws to make fireworks.

I decided to add large spiny balls to the paint and subway art to my paper 

because I love subway art! Just Google Fourth of July subway art. I first glued the

 subway art in the corner of the paper. I then taped 8 straws together. You need the 

bending straws so they fan out. For easy clean-up I used paper plates.

We added glitter to our paint for some sparkle. The kids took the straws

dipped them in the paint, turned them in the paint  so they were covered with  paint

 and then pressed them onto the paper. I had them gently push each

 straw so the print would come out nicely. They then added spiny

 ball fireworks to fill in the empty spaces on their paper. 

These came out so cute!!! Worthy of being framed!

supplies needed

straws taped together

subway art

large spiny balls

red,white & blue paint

glitter

black paper

Fireworks.
We had a great time making these colorful
exploding fireworks! I gave each child a straw that I had cut a couple
 of inches off of. This makes it easier for them to blow the food coloring
around on the paper. I dropped one color of food coloring at a time and
had them blow the coloring with their straw.The kids figured
 out if they wiggled the straw as they blew the colors their colors
would go "crazy". They had lots of fun  making the colors run crazy.
They were very proud of their art work!

Rain painting

We decided to make our own rain today. Kids in Phoenix

don't see much of  the real stuff!The kids stayed busy dipping 

their paint brushes in very wet watercolors and then 

tapping the brush and  making it rain all over their paper. They thought

it was so funny when the "rain" splashed on their hands and even their faces

 We should of worn our smocks to cover our clothes,they were rained on to!

Thank goodness for washable paints!

Supplies needed

construction paper

washable watercolor paints

( I like  a good quality of paints such as Crayola or Prang)

water cups & brushes