Spray Painting

One of the first projects we did this year, and continue to do is spray painting.

We use small water bottles with watered down tempura paint in them.

We have been experimenting with different ways to use the spray paint.

Some days they just spray the paper and watch as the colors blend

and splatter.

 

Other times they place stencils down and spray aound them to get an image.

We have also experimented with loading the paper up with paint and

then blotting it to see texture as well as relieve the paper of so much wetness.

Most recently with they did leaf and rock arrangments

and then spray painted over them.

The results from these created great negative images of the leaves.

A finished painting,

and I just love the way the leaves looked when they were done.

We saved these and used them on a different project, more of that to come.

I find the paintings beautiful and since it has been such a well lovedproject, it was decided that we should do spray painting on our school folders.  These folders hold a lot of the children's paper artwork done at school.  Because we do so much experimental artwork at school, we go through a lot of paper during our process work.  A lot of these projects are very in the moment, but it wouldn't be right throwing them out, so we keep them in their folders giving them a special place to be and the chance to re-visit later on.  A lot of times these pieces of artwork become backgrounds for future work such as, the background for printmaking, collage work, paintings and drawing layered on top, or frames.  It all has a beautiful place in their experience with art.

Some of our school art folders.

I love their photographs on the cover.

The Beautiful Gift of the Monarch Butterfly

 

 While playing outside two weeks ago, we found several Monarch Butterfly wings under the butterfly bush in the garden.  It was a special gift for us to be able to hold and look at

the wings up close.  To get a better look we examined the wings with magnifying glasses which

the children loved!

 

 

 

They were fascinated by these wings.

We also talked about Monarch Butterflies and how the Monarch not only has

4 stages: egg, caterpillar, cocoon, butterfly

It also has 4 generations in one year.  The 1st being the butterfly that migrates North from Mexico usually in the Spring, the second, being the Spring butterfly that lays its egg, and usually lives 2-6 weeks, and the Summer butterfly that does the same, but the fall monarch hatched from the summer egg, goes on to migrate South and lives 6-8 months. 

If the kids didn't find this fact fascinating, I did!

 

For a week we kept going back to the wings and looking at them.

One day the older group observed and pieced together some of

the wings to draw.

 

We also made our own Monarch Butterflies using washable

marker on coffee filters that the children dropped water on

with eye droppers



 

The water made the colors bleed in a very beautiful way.

Some later drew lines and dots on the wings after looking at the wings again.

 

 

 

 One of our beloved finger plays at school is Rolly-polly caterpillar, which we

did often as well as "butterflies are flying won't you try and catch one," where we

pretend to have nets and catch our own butterfly.

One day all the kids caught 100!  Amazing!

Printed Monsters

This is just a fun one left over from summer.  I saw on pinterest a project where you cut the bottom of paper rolls into different designs, and print with them.

Here is the link to the original project:

http://www.gettingmessywithmsjessi.com/

 

 

We started off doing prints, but the kids were having so much fun, that unlike these individual prints,

they layered and created a whole new image.

 

 

They had a ball making these, and as I looked at them they had so much personality

I thought these would make great monster bodies.

They had been playing monster all morning, so that is probably why the idea came to me. 

So, I decided to take their monster que, and asked them if they would like to make their prints into monsters.  They were more than excited to get started, and the results were hysterical.

 



Monsters in progress

 

 

 

 

 

They came out great and they just kept making me laugh, I LOVE the personality

that came out in each of them.

 

Back to School

Stepping Into A New Year

 

The start of school is always an exciting and tender time for preschoolers

and parents alike.  For many little ones this is the first time they are away from

their parents, and as fun as school is, it always takes a little time to adjust and make those big steps into a school year.



 

This year to help with making those steps into school, I wanted

to make it easier and fun to enter school.

I thought if the children were preoccupied with the footprints, their anxiety

may be relieved. So...

 

1,2 Welcome to school

3,4 Come in the door

5, 6 Take off shoes and give a kiss

7, 8 School is great

9, 10 Let's jump in

 

We kept this up for a week, so that the kids had something to focus on rather than drop off.

It seemed to work, because most mornings they have been doing just what it said...jumping right in.

 

Another activity we did those first couple days to help the children

feel more at ease in school was read and do a project based on the book

The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn and illustrated by  Nancy M, Leak

 

 

This is a beautiful story about a reluctant raccoon starting preschool.

In the story the mother raccoon places a kiss in the center of her son's hand and calls it, the "kissing hand," and whenever her son needs to feel his mother's love, he could hold his kissing hand to his face and know he is loved.

 

To help the children out, I read the story and they each received a kissing hand sticker of their own, but we also made our own kissing hands.

 

 

After they painted their hands, I placed a heart sticker on their hand, and

I loved seeing the surprised faces they had when they lifted up their hand to find

a heart in the middle of the print.

 

We also started a wall of pictures with their names written on a board in the pictures.

I placed these above the chalk board in school for the children to feel a part of the space.

I also placed them above the chalk board because some of the children are showing interest in writing their names.  This is something I hope for, but I do not pressure them into writing, I feel it should be a natural process so that they do not have resistance to letters and writing down the road.

Having their pictures with their names above the black board gives them the space to practice their names and their friends names on their own and with their own natural inclination.

 

 

 

We have a great year ahead of us!!!