Rainbow Sun Catchers

This was a fun project to do with my 2 1/2 - 3 Year Olds.  Each step was tactile and really worked their hand eye coordination.  They enjoyed the process and I love how they turned out.

I have some glass rings that catch the light beautifully that I got from our local Materials Exchange.  

I think they were surplus materials from Woodstock Chimes.

I wrapped a wire around each, and the children had fun beading their wire.

On another day, I had cut contact paper circles and placed it on the rings, the children then placed cut up pieces of tissue paper on the contact paper.  I was amazed at how focused many of the children were as they placed their paper onto the sticky surface.

 Always when I look at these little hands at work, I am touched by how little they are, and yet so capable.

Checking to see if he can see through his sun catcher.

For the final step, the children painted watered down glue onto the tissue paper.  

This blended the colors for a stained glass effect, but also secured the papers onto the contact paper.

We have an art show coming up this weekend, so I hung their pieces on a stick to make it easier to display in the gallery.  I love how they all look together.

Melted Bead Chimes and Pendants

My mother showed me a great project that she saw in one of the preschools that she works in, they melted beads in plastic Dixie cups to make pins.

I loved the idea, but never got around to doing it.  Then on pinterest I saw sun catchers made from the melted beads, and I was reminded of my mother's project, and well, I just had to do it!

We took the idea of a sun catcher, but added string and attached them to a ring and made chimes.

They have a nice sound and are beautiful in the sunlight.

It is simple to make these.  We took transparent colored pony beads, and made a thin layer in the bottom of a muffin pan.  My daughter decided to separate hers out for a couple solid colored pieces, but most the kids mixed their beads.

It works best if they lay them flat with holes up.

Place them in the oven at 400 degrees and cook for 20 minutes or so.  Take the kids outside to play during this time because of the smell of melting plastic.  When they are done, remove from the oven and continue playing outside until they are cooled off and the smell dissipates.

I have a dremel tool, which the children used with my assistance to drill holes in the melted chime pieces. 

They loved these so much that we decided to do it again making pendants, this time using the process my mother told me about.  Instead of melting the beads right in a pan, use plastic dixie cups or plastic shot glasses.  Place a thin layer of beads in the bottom. 

I then put the cups in the cupcake holders, but you can put them on a cookie sheet.

The fun thing about the cups is that they melt down around the beads making a cool pendant or pin shape.

 

Again, we worked together to drill the holes with the dremel tool.

I attached a jump ring, and the children beaded a necklace to add to the pendant.

We also did a slip know on the end so that the necklace could be adjusted.

This shirt couldn't have matched better!

Photo Transfer Sun Catchers

Last year we made  flower pedal sun catchers and they were a big hit.  This year I wanted to make them again, however I wanted to change the project a little bit.  I decided to teach the children how to make a photo transfer using contact paper and a photo copied image.

I use to teach this process to my high school students and continuing ed. adult classes, however I wasn't sure if my preschoolers would have a hard time with it. 

Happy to say they did great and loved the process. 

To learn how to make the flower pedal sun catcher view my previous post under sun catchers or click here:

http://www.artandsoulpreschool.blogspot.com/2011/07/flower-pedal-sun-catchers.html

To start our project we first had to gather our materials. We took a nature walk around the neighborhood, but we found most of our treasure at Helen's, my next door neighbor.  We have visited Helen before, she is 95 and loves it when the little ones visit her.  Here are the kids greeting Helen.

 Our nature basket filled with treasures

After we collected leaves and flowers, we then went to work on our sun catchers.

The first thing the children did was paint their borders.

Before starting this project I photocopied pictures of the children.  You can print them as well, but a photo copied image works better because the ink lifts off the paper surface better.

I also cut the circles of contact paper we would need and placed their pictures on them ahead of time. 

The children then took a smooth rock and rubbed it all over their pictures.

This helps the ink to adhere better to the contact paper.

Next, they removed the back of the contact paper and placed it in a bowl of warm water.  It stayed in the water for a minute or so, until the paper was wet through.

They then placed the contact paper face down on a towel and began to rub the paper off the back.  Here is where the fun and magic began.  It was neat for them to see the paper rub away and their faces remain on the contact paper.  It takes a couple times of rubbing the paper and re-submerging the paper into the water to clean it completely off.

When they were done with the transfer they stuck it to their borders and started placing flowers on the sticky side.

Once they felt they were done, I then took a piece of contact paper the circumference of the inner circle and placed it down on top of their flower and leaf arrangements.  They then took their stones again and rubbed all the air bubbles out and pressed their flowers.

I was only able to capture a couple in a photo before moving onto clean up, but I think they look wonderful and they did just as well as my high school students would have;)

Experimenting with Color, Water, and Ice Sun Catchers

Oh the magic of food coloring in water, how it fascinates and amazes.

It really is a beautiful thing to play with and learn about mixing colors.

One afternoon we started to add color to little cups so that we could make ice cubes for an ice sun catcher.  Here are some pictures of our color fun.

Our experiment began with little cups of water and squeezing food coloring into the cups.

We then filled ice cube trays and talked about how water freezes

With our left over water, we mixed our colors in a big bowl to make more colors.

Here is a picture of our ice cubes after they froze.

We also explored watching our ice turn back into water.  As Jasper said: "This is good, but now they're gone."  By this we learned how things alter from one thing that existed into another, and then no longer exists.

We also placed out ice cubes into trays of partially frozen colored water and then froze them again.
This is a project I found in Family Fun.  You take a tray of water, and fill a small cup of water to place in the tray.  Make your colored ice cubes, and then place them in the tray of water, and refreeze them.
The final results are ice sun catchers.  Here are some pictures of ours.  I would like to say they lasted longer then the next morning, but we have been having such a warm winter that as Jasper said about the ice cubes: "this is good, but now they're gone."

gem window sun catcher

Gemmies!

"Gemmies" as the children call them, are a well loved item at our school.

We have played with them on the light box and in our marble runs, and now thanks to the blog Play at Home Mom, we got the idea to use them in our artwork.

These window sun catchers are very beautiful, but also very simple to create.  It also kept everyone's interests the duration of the project.

We started our project by painting plain wood picture frames.

Next have the children add a thick layer of glue and then push it all around the frame with a paint brush.



Have them position the gems wherever they like on the frame.

Finally, let dry for a couple days.





Flower Petal Sun Catchers

Everyday at Art and Soul we journey through the wonderful world of art and art making.  Sometimes it is just a sensory exploration of paint on paper at an easel, on a rock, in the snow, or on our hands.  Other times we find ourselves involved in printmaking, collaging, candle making or simply cutting paper for the fun and skill of using scissors and seeing how they deconstruct and manipulate paper.

I would like this blog to offer parents at home some projects that they can try out with their own children, or for parent's of the children at Art and Soul to see their children in the act of making the art they bring home or place in their school art books.   Enjoy the process.

Flower Petal Sun Catchers

Materials:
A heavy card stock or cardboard...in this case a pizza box worked well. 
Contact paper
Paints
Flower petals, feather, pictures, whatever flat object you would like to use.

The Process:
I cut the the card board into circles, but any frame shape will work.  I also cut two pieces of contact paper into circles, one the size of the cardboard frame and one the size of the opening. 

The children then get their paint palettes, which at the school are little trays that have deep sections in them so that they can experiment with mixing colors.  I also have the kids pick their colors, they know what they like and get very excited about having the option to pick the color paints they would like to work with.  We spend sometime before painting just letting them mix paints and explore.

Next, they were given their circles and they started painting right away.

After they finish their paintings we let them dry as we walk into the garden to get some flower petals to use.
As the children pluck the petals from the flowers, I attach the large circle of contact paper so that the sticky side is facing out. and then the fun of sticking the flower petals to the clear circle begins.

The next step is to place the smaller circle of contact paper on top of the flower petals face down.

Have the children smooth out the bubbles so that the  flowers preserve themselves better.

After the sun catchers are finished, the kids beaded wire hanger attachments.  As a jeweler I of course love seeing them bead, but it is a great way for them to work on hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills and concentration.