Fun with Fungi !

July 22, 2008

Mushroom Prints!

I love painting and printing with fun things you can find while grocery shopping , when I saw this huge mushroom at the market I knew half would be eaten and half was going to be sacrificed for art!

Gather your materials. You will need a large firm mushroom, make sure it’s fresh so it can stand up to a beating, which means no gills showing. Paint- as many colors as you want , a plate and some paper. I am using the brown paper bag from the store. * You could also use multiple veggies- potatoes, onions, and zucchini make cool prints.
Spread a thin layer of paint on the plate.
Start printing!
Add 2nd and 3rd color of paint and keep going.
Don’t worry if your younger child doesn’t stamp the mushroom so that the outline is clear, they are still having fun and painting with a new tool. Older children should be encouraged but not pushed to do it carefully so that they can see the outline. It’s more important to have fun and be open to learning than making them do it “right” .

Book!

Just one book today, it’s such a gem it deserves it’s own day!

” Eating the Alphabet” by Lois Ehlert is an alphabet book extrodinare! Wonderful paintings of fruits and vegetables seem ultra simple and it is but somehow the way the author has pieced this simple book together is brilliant. Maybe it’s that children learn about food at the table multiple times a day and feel proud being able to identify not only some of the letters but some of the pictures too! From a teaching standpoint I love that there are both upper and lower case letters on each page! This book will grow with your child, and beware it will also make you hungry!