Painting, Paint Brushes and More

We paint in our room almost everyday (unless we have a special project going like the sculptures). Our easel is used by most but not all the children.  This week we are going to have lots and lots of painting experiences with our TTh class.

Don't be afraid to paint with children at home!  Cover the surface with newspaper or a cheap tablecloth from your dollar store and cover your child with an old t-shirt.  Let the creative juices flow!


We paint with all sorts of things.  The blog with dollar store monster truck and an old map is just one idea you can use at home, Sunday school, or with any group of children. Here are a few more-

We save corks, marker lids and large lids from laundry detergent and aerosol cans. I still have some 35 mm film canisters (and would take more if you have 'em) that we will use for painting. I  was cleaning out this weekend and found plastic Easter eggs from when my boys were little. We are going to use them for painting this week. Get out your cookie cutters and paint. 
 


We use Styrofoam egg cartons to hold the paint.  Reusing is recycling and best of all it makes clean up super easy.  At the end of the day, we store the cartons in plastic grocery bags to prevent them from drying out.  At the end of the week, we throw it all away.

When we pour the paint, we alternate the egg cups to keep the colors separate.  We coordinate the marker lids with the paint color.  The egg lids hold paint for larger lids.


Because we are on a budget, we paint on a wide variety of paper. All of our white art paper has been donated and is old perforated computer paper. We also have lots of wallpaper and wallpaper borders that we paint.  You can paint on newspaper, old maps, old calendars.  The possibilities are only limited to your imagination.

Want to do more?  I checked at the local super store and they carry canvas for painting.  They are located in the arts and crafts section.  A three pack size 8 x 10 was about five dollars.  A three pack size 16 x 20 was about ten dollars. 

Piccadilly Place

Everyone knows Metamora Fields has opened but you may not have noticed a new store on the square.  Piccadilly Place opened mid-December.  From the street, it appears to be antique and vintage items. PPlace carries a wide variety of gift items and jewelry plus some SUPER cute hair bows and headbands for little girls.  Check it out. Dine and shop locally!

Sculpture Unit 2011

What do you get when you combine five garbage bags full of toilet paper and paper towel tubes, hot glue, a piece of a cardboard and a preschooler's imagination?  A one of a kind artistic adventure!

Our MWF classes have started a sculpture unit.  This is either the third or fourth year we have introduced the children to the art of sculpting.  We learn sculpture is an art.  Sculptures can be made out many things.  Some sculptures look realistic and sculptures look just plain ol' weird.  :-)  We talk about two dimensional and three dimensional.  Yea! for 3D movies because the kids really are understanding this concept.

The children will each create a sculpture. They place the pieces and I glue. The next step is painting and finally we will hot glue lots of collage items. You can see some photos in the April 2010 blog.

This is a great opportunity to explore local art.  Start in our town square with the Lincoln statue.  Go by Greg DePauw's house (right by the fire station).   Want more?  Head over to ICC and see some HUGE sculptures or go downtown Peoria, walk along the riverfront or head over to Bradley's campus.  It's a great opportunity to discover art with your child.

The one thing we don't have time to do in this unit is story writing.  Most of the children as they create their sculpture are telling me a story.  Have your child dictate a story about their sculpture to you, add picture clues and add it to their story book. 

The Wheels on the Bus and More!

Our TTh class started a unit on Wheels/Transportation today.  We asked the children to name something with wheels.  Well, after we covered the basics (car, bus, truck, train) the children's wheels really started spinning! It was a GREAT list-Legos, backpacks, chair, a gurney, wheelchair, strollers, snow blower, lawn mower and more. We listed all their ideas on chart paper. I'll type up the list to send home so you can add it to your story book.

Our art project today had some folks asking me at drop off if I stay up late nights thinking of new projects for the kids. No, I just have been teaching preschool so long (on and off for decades which is scary) I have lots and lots and lots of fun ideas!

This art project is a super easy one to do at home on a rainy day, for a play date, a Sunday School or VBS project or an afternoon at Grandma's.  You will need old maps or an atlas (we used an atlas and just tore the pages out), some cool monster trucks from your local dollar store, some black paint and a pie tin, Styrofoam plate or I used a Chinese take out container to hold the paint. HINT-do not pour a lot of paint in your container.  Roll the truck back and forth over the paint and on the map.  Too much paint and you better have mud flaps on  your truck cause it will be flyin' all over!

Keep your eyes open for things with wheels!

Kindergarten Screening

An article from the Chicago Tribune...tutoring preschoolers??? 
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/education/ct-met-cps-testing-0215-20110214,0,3146773.story

The Deep Blue Sea

The deep blue is sea is crowded.  Our MWF classes have been very enthusiastic about tracing, coloring and cutting sea creatures for our bulletin board.  I love it!  Every time they use scissors and cut out shapes, they get better and better.  A few of the ocean stencils have some pretty tricky curves! If your child looks closely they could probably find their fish in our sea!

We had a lot of fun at our Super Summer Seashore Safari!  I am thinking warm and sunny thoughts on a grey winter weekend. See you Monday or Tuesday!

Sand Bottles-How To...

Do you want to make sand bottles for a family reunion, vacation Bible school, Sunday school, scouts or birthday party?  They are fun and easy to make but last year I was shocked at the cost of colored sand. 

This year, I found a cheaper alternative to buying colored sand.  I bought  fine children's play sand and three jars of dry tempera at the School House in Peoria.   I put sand, a couple scoops of dry tempera and some glitter in a plastic container.  The glitter really adds some bling to the sand. I shook and mixed the sand until I had the color I wanted. With the three primary colors, I was able to achieve all the colors of the rainbow.  They turned out so pretty!  Best of all it was way cheaper!!!

I used Parmesan cheese containers because the wide mouth makes it easy for the children to scoop the sand out with a spoon into a funnel.   

We bought little glass bottles with corks at a craft store.  In case your child tries to take the cork out, we did super glue it.  If you are on a budget, you can always save bottles with narrow openings or use small jars.

I did a quick search and found you can color sand with food coloring.  This seems to be a little more time consuming because you wet the sand and then it has to dry. The dry tempera is way easier.  If you're interested...  http://www.ehow.com/how_2303753_make-colored-sand.html

The kids did a great job and it is a super souvenir from their Super Summer Seashore Safari!