Salty Watercolors

I've seen this project all over blogosphere, but it comes from MaryAnn F. Kohl's book, Scribble Art: Independent Creative Art Experiences for Children. I apologize, I forgot to take pictures again until the very end! (I had a sick baby and a call from the doctor in the middle of the project, so I was sidetracked.)

Materials Needed

Watercolors and brushes
Water cups for rinsing
Card stock
Salt
Pencils
White glue
Jelly roll pan or other shallow dish with sides
Tupperware or other container for pouring salt from pan

Directions

1. Give each child a piece of card stock and a bottle of glue. (They can use pencils to draw a picture or design on their card stock first if they want to, but it's not necessary.) Have them use the glue to draw a picture or design (or trace their pencil drawing).

2. Put the glued-on card stock in the pan and pour salt generously over the glue.

3. Give it a few minutes to set.



4. Wet the paintbrush and fill it generously with watercolor paint. Touch the brush gently onto the salt and watch it absorb!



Results













Evaluation

I was nervous about this project because I knew it would require a lot of self-restraint for the kids to dab the paint on the salt and not stroke their brushes, although I figured if they did then it wouldn't be a big deal. We ended up with a group of six 4- and 5-year olds and they dabbed beautifully. As it turns out, this project is just as much a science project as it is art! The kids were very focused while they painted and they enjoyed watching the salt suck up the paint from their brush. At one point one of them commented how quiet it was in the room! It was a much more process-oriented project than product-oriented, but aren't all the best projects that way? PBug loved this project and kept creating well after her friends had left.

Tips

* Mat board or cardboard was recommended for this project, and while it probably would have been better, card stock worked just fine. Paper did NOT work.

* Kids normally don't have this much freedom with glue and they relished in it! I recommend opening the glue spout only halfway for the best results.

Monoprinting Variation

We didn't host art group this Saturday, but I'm making an effort to set that time aside for art with Potato Bug regardless. This week we did a variation of the monoprinting activity we did the previous week (yet another idea I found on The Artful Parent). Instead of Tempra paint and rollers, we used watercolors and paintbrushes. And just because glitter is so much fun, we added some glitter, too!

First she painted the frame with watercolors.



Then she sprinkled glitter over her work.



She experimented with the roller and got a really cool (albeit brown) result.



She used her finger to draw in the paint.



PBug loved this project! She made print after print after print for an hour. (I'm pretty sure the glitter had a LOT to do with it!)





This might give you an idea of how much fun she had:



A fun project, and worth the mess!

Monoprinting

I found the idea for this project here.

Materials Needed

Acrylic box picture frames with cardboard removed (1 per child)
Tempra paint
Plates (for paint)
Paint rollers
Q-Tips
Card stock
Towels (for drying frames after rinsing)

Directions

1. Give each child a frame and let them paint the outside of it with a roller. Make sure they paint everything, corners and edges included!



2. Once the frame is painted, allow them to use a Q-tip or their finger to draw a picture, pattern, design, whatever in the paint.





3. Place a piece of card stock over the painting and press gently. Make sure to press straight down so the paint underneath doesn't smear. Lift the card stock off.



4. Rinse the paint off the frame, dry, and start over!

Results

I only have one picture, but I wish I had taken more, they're all so different! PBug made this drawing of a fairy, a fairy bed, and a fairy house.



Evaluation

I loved this project and so did the kids! They had a lot of fun drawing in the paint, and they were able to paint over their work if they wanted to start over with a clean slate. Our youngest was 3 1/2, but I imagine it would work with even younger kids. Our oldest was 5 1/2 and she enjoyed it as well. Moms liked how, because the paper was a little bit bigger than the frame, it made crisp, clear edges. I planned on sending the frames home with the kids so they could put their art in it if they wanted to, but the Q-tips left the frames all marked up. Everyone went home with some pretty cool creations, though. Fun, fun, fun!

Tips

1. I found frames at Michael's for $2.99. If you don't want to use frames I'm sure you could find all kinds of things around the house you could use. If you do this project with a large group, I suggest having at least one extra frame available so the kids don't need to wait while you rinse and dry their frame. We had five kids and there was a bit of a back-up at the sink at times, but the kids didn't have a problem waiting. I also found rollers for $1 at Michael's. Make sure you have at least one roller per kid because they LIKE the rolling!

2. We told the kids not to mix the colors with the rollers, but you can still put several colors on a frame if you don't overlap them. The kids also figured out they could dip the Q-tips in the paint and draw with different colors that way!



3. Let the kids take the reins and they'll have all kinds of fun!





4. Have some colored construction paper on hand and some white paint and see what you get!

Melted Crayons & Watercolors

I found the idea for this project here.

Materials Needed

Paper (we used butcher)
Pencils
Crayon Shavings (we used five colors)
Wax Paper
Iron
Watercolor Paints
Paintbrushes
Water Cups

Directions

1. Have the kids use the crayon shavings to decorate their paper. I demonstrated this and told them they could do it however they wanted: either randomly, or they could make designs or drawings with the pencils and fill in their drawings with the crayon shavings. I also showed them how they could put out the crayon shavings and then draw something in it with their fingers.

2. Put a piece of wax paper over their work and iron it. I used a medium setting and found that you have to set the iron straight down on the paper, lift up, then set it back down (if you try to slide the iron it messes up the design). Once all of the wax is melted, lift the wax paper off.

3. After the wax cools (it cools in just a minute or two), have the kids watercolor their art. The paint will adhere to the paper but not the wax.

I forgot to take many pictures, but I promise I'll try harder next time! I didn't remember to take pictures until all of them were on their second piece, and at that point they were happily experimenting with the wax shavings!







Evaluation

This was the perfect project for our first meeting. The kids enjoyed working with the wax. They each did the project twice. The first time they placed the wax carefully, the second time they really got into drawing in the wax with their fingers. The pencils were used briefly by one or two kids but were quickly forgotten.

The kids didn't really get the idea of using the watercolors over the wax, most of them painted around the perimeter of their designs. If I did this project again I would emphasize using the paint on top of their wax creations.

Results

Here are PBug's creations:

One is already hanging on her art board...



...and the other is ready to be sent to her art pen pal in Pennsylvania.



And here are her friend's creations:








Tips

1. I would recommend having one iron available for every two to three kids, so if you do this in a group, ask another mommy or two to bring an iron! (I ironed right on my tile counter tops and it was just fine.)

2. I recommend Artista brand watercolors, the quality was great, but Crayola worked just fine.

3. To make the crayon shavings I used a cheese grater and jumbo crayons (and my husband, who was perfectly willing to grate crayons as long as he could watch the basketball game while he worked). I used two jumbo crayons of each of five colors and it made plenty for four kids. In fact we encouraged them to use more wax, and we still had a little bit left at the end. Make sure you don't leave any chunks of crayon in there because they'll break through the wax paper and get on your iron. No need to grate the crayons finely, the course grater works just fine. Don't grate into plastic bowls though, the static cling makes it difficult to work with!

Welcome to Saturday Morning Art Group!

This year we're trying something new! I was inspired by Jean at The Artful Parent, a blog I've been reading ever since I started reading blogs, to start my own art group. I don't do art with Potato Bug nearly enough and I have absolute zero motivation to plan projects, so I thought this would be a good way to expand our horizons. I honestly don't know why it didn't occur to me to do this a long time ago! Better late than never, I guess!

A couple of months ago I contacted some friends of mine who have kids in the range of three to six years old and asked them if they'd be interested in getting together on the first Saturday of every month to do art with our kids. The response was an overwhelming yes! I laid out some guidelines ahead of time:

1. All of the art will be open-ended. In other words, by the end of each session, no two projects will look the same!

2. We will hold our art group from 9:30 to 11:00 on the first Saturday of the month (with the possibility of adding the third Saturday as well - we shall see). On those mornings, the playroom will be closed and the kids will only be here for art. (I don't want them tempted to rush through their art at the prospect of playing.)

3. No one is committed to come to every session, they can just come when they are able to make it. I am using Evite so everyone can rsvp and we can plan the project and snack accordingly.

4. I will gladly plan all of the art projects but am also more than happy to let others take the reins at any time. I've had several offers already from some moms who are excited about planning projects, but I don't want anyone to feel obligated to plan a project if they're just not interested in doing so.

5. I will either ask the moms to bring materials ahead of time or reimburse me if I have to buy any matierals. It will never be more than a few dollars.

6. The other moms will take turns bringing a healthy snack each time.

Tomorrow is our first session and PBug and I are really excited about it! We invited ten children and we have three who rsvp'd yes. Since most of my friends are teachers they're still on winter break and many are out of town, but I think it will work out nicely that our first session will be a small one.

I decided to put these posts on a seperate blog to make them easier to naviagate. Each time we do a project I'll post what we did, hopefully some pictures, as well as a materials list at the beginning of each post. I'll try to label posts according to the materials we used. This way if you have some materials and you want to find a project, you can look through my labels to find one that might work for you. As always, I'll be honest about the success (or lack-thereof!) of each project and whether I think younger and/or older kids will enjoy it. At first a lot of our projects will probably come from Jean's blog, but hopefully we'll branch out at some point!

My hope is that I might inspire others to start an art group of their own, as big or as little as you want to make it. I sat on my rump reading about Jean's projects for two years before the thought even entered my brain that I could do the same thing!