Tie dye butterflies

I love coffee filter art projects! They are colorful,

age appropriate for even the youngest artist

and best of all they are cheap!

You can use washable markers and a spray

 bottle,dot painters, or as we did today

 you can use watercolor paints.

I like to buy the small coffee filters because

 my kiddos are preschoolers and the small ones

are just  right size to keep their interest.

I set out the filters that  I have pressed flat

on newspaper for easy cleanup.

I also set out washable watercolors,

( I prefer a good quality paint such as Crayola or Prang) 

cups of water and brushes. For the bodies I let the kids

 paint clothes pins. After the kids are done painting 

let the filters and the clothes pins dry.

Then gather up the filter and clip it into the clothespin.

 You now have a beautiful tie dyed butterfly.

 For added fun you can  help the kids
roll up the butterfly and 

 put it in a toilet paper roll "cocoon"!

This is a fun activity to go with

"The very hungry caterpillar" book. 

Supplies needed

coffee filters

wooden clothespins

washable watercolors

water cups and brushes

newspaper

toilet paper rolls

Flower power!

One of my favorite things to do is walk through

 the arts and craft isles at Micheal's.

I always find something to spark a new 

craft idea for my kiddos!  

This week I found these great textured brushes (by creatology). 

They looked like lots of fun, and sure enough my kids

 had a great time making flowers with them!

I put out shallow bowls of paint. I added  the textured brushes 

as well as some foam shaped circles blocks I  had found in Targets dollar bin. 

 I drew lots of stems on the paper and then let the kids add flowers.

They had lots of fun painting with their new brushes! 

Tomorrow I will add them to the easel center 

and see what the kids come up with on their own!

Supplies needed

textured brushes

shallow bowls for paint

washable tempera paint

construction paper

 A garden of Flowers

We are learning about spring this week in preschool. 

At the art table I put out  small bowls of paint and water bottles 

and told the kids they could paint a  garden with the water bottles. 

They thought it was so fun to dip water bottles in paint 

and stamp flowers with them. I added circle shaped sponges

( I found them with the tole painting supplies at Walmart). 

for the center of the flowers. When they were happy with their gardens I gave 

them a paint pot of green paint and let them add stems, leaves and grass. 

The gardens came out amazing. Each one a bit different.

 Each one  full of color and creativity!

Supplies needed

Butcher paper cut into the  length of  your choice. 

(ours were about 24"  long)

water bottles (we used 5 with 5 colors of paint)

small bowls for the paint and water bottles

circle shaped sponges

washable tempera paint.

paint pots and brushes.(for the green paint)

Spring flowers

Here in Phoenix it's a beautiful first day of spring! 

I decided it would be fun as an introduction to our spring 

theme if we made a garden of colorful flowers.

I set out  assorted colors of paint, small brushes, and small paper plates.

(I taped a stem to the back of each plate).

I also set out pompoms for the kids to glue (tacky glue works best)

 to center of the their flowers.

The flowers came out so cute, full of  bright colors! 

The kids had such fun painting 

 that we ended up with quite a large garden of flowers!

Supplies needed

 washable tempera paints 

paint pots and brushes

small paper plates

green construction paper

pom poms

tacky glue

Sparkly  rainbow paintings

Today we got out our watercolor paints, spray bottles and salt shakers

and ended up with colorful  sparkly paintings that are worthy of framing!

I first had the kids use the spray bottle of water and spray their paper.

 Then they went to work painting on the wet paper. 

It was great fun watching the colors run together.

Once they were pleased with their beautiful rainbow

 paintings they took the salt shaker and shook salt all over the painting. 

So much fun, such lovely pictures! 

Supplies needed

watercolor paints (I like a good quality paint such as crayola or prang)

water cups and paint brushes

salt shakers

white construction paper.

Ww for worms

The kids had such fun dipping their "worms" in shallow bowls of paint and 

laying them across their paper. Makenna liked her worms to dance and bounce.

Ashley had ballerina worms that moved slowly making lots of shapes.

The boys had army worms, they loved  dragging them across

 the paper  as they watched the colors mix up.

 We ended up with some beautiful art work that the

 kids were so very proud of!

Supplies needed

washable tempera paint

shallow bowls for the paint

yarn cut into pieces

construction paper 

Planes, cars, trucks, and trains!

What fun it is to run vehicles through a plate of paint and then across a sheet of paper!

Today in preschool we learned about different ways to travel. I set assorted vehicles in the plates of paint and asked each child what vehicle would you pick if you wanted to fly in the sky? What would you climb into if you were traveling on railroad tracks? I had a boat, bike, plane, train, car, mud bog truck, and a skateboard! The kids had such fine naming the vehicles and even more fun racing them on their paper!

For added fun I set out giant Tt's for them to paint across with the vehicles 

 as they shared their favorite way to travel.

Supplies needed

assorted small vehicles

paper plates of washable paint

paper