Archive for July 2009
- Gather your materials. You will need some wax crayons, aluminum foil, cookie cutters, a paper plate and a very hot sunny spot.
- Start by peeling and breaking your crayons into small pieces. I left some chunky bits because it was well over 100 and figured it would be fine, if the day was cooler I’d used shavings to melt faster.
- Cover the plate in aluminum foil
- Place the plate with the cookie cutters in a sunny spot
- Add the broken crayons
- Wait- in 100+ heat this took an hour to melt, but I had lots of really big pieces.
- Yay they melted!
- Let cool inside, then pop out of the cookie cutters. Mine slid right out, I just broke off the little bit of extra that slipped out on the bottom.
- Color on scrap paper for a truly eco friendly activity!
- Gather your materials. You will need three large pieces of white paper, a marker, a googly eye, a paint roller , sponge or large brush, green paint, scissors and glue.
- Start by tracing your child’s hand, I only trace it once, then cut and trace that one original. Getting one good tracing takes luck with a 2 year old so I don’t push it.
- On the other paper draw a dinosaur, as you can see from mine no talent is required. As long as your child knows it’s not an alligator you are good, no need for perfection!
- Start painting both papers. We used the roller, and our hands. Let dry.
- Cut dinosaur and the hands out.
- Glue the dinosaur on the remaining piece of paper.
- Glue on the eye.
- Glue the cut out hands on to the back of the dinosaur.
* if you are using thin paper they may roll, simply roll them back the other direction and they will stay pretty straight.
Let dry.
“Tadpole REX “ by Kurt Cyrus is one of those books that I wonder why I’ve never read before. It’s so good! It could be used in a dinosaur unit to talk about how large the dinosaurs was , it’s illustrations show the size difference between a frog and a dinosaur beautifully from the frogs perspective, it could be used to teach about the frog life cycle as well. What I loved though was the rhyme and rhythm the book had, it was almost musical and in a book about frogs and dinosaurs that is awesome!
“I Am an Ankylosaurus” by Karen Wallace tels the story of an ankylosaurus and how she lays her eggs, protects them with her armour and tail, eats leaves and fights off a tyranosaurus rex. It’s not a bad book and dinosaur lovers will still like it, my son did but I was sorta left with the question “So what?” I didn’t care about this dinosaur , there was nothing that made me feel like I should. Like I said my 2 year old liked it but didn’t ask to read it again.
We are in the middle of a heatwave and I am so done. My kitchen is too hot to do anything in and with the fans blowing art supplies it’s impossible to do much art. So today we made organic yogurt popsicles , and went outside and played in the shade with our Ocean we made a while back.
- Gather your materials. You will need 2-3 large strawberries ( ripe ripe is best) , a banana, and a small yogurt. You will need a blender and some popsicle molds as well.
- Count your strawberries as you pop them in.
- Next up the banana.
- Squeeze the yogurt
- Blend!
- Taste to make sure it’s ok.
- Pour into the molds
- Pop in the sticks ( I asked specifically for each color, I can’t help it I’m a teacher through and through and these mini lessons just happen)
- Freeze
- Enjoy!
click on the picture for the full instructions and even more !
Teaching children art appreciation doesn’t take a magical formula, it takes exposure. My son loves paintings and part of it comes from looking at my big coffee table books,part children’s books, part Little Einsteins ( yes I do allow some tv and we love that show!) and part is understanding that he can make art as well. When ever he sees a wave he announces it’s Kanagawa! I wanted to do a project with chalk and this seems like a great fit. Also there is no reason this can’t simply be a fun project for an ocean or water theme.
- Before starting show your child the painting if they haven’t seen it, or as a reminder if they have. I find image searches on Google to be the easiest.
- Gather your materials. You will need 2 pieces of construction paper, one black or dark blue and one light brown. Some chalk , glue and scissors.
- Start by drawing a wave on your black paper. If your child can do this they should!
- Fill your wave in with white chalk. This makes the wave look foamy and like it’s crashing.
- Have your child rub the chalk with their hands to smudge it.
This lasted a long time, he loved exploring how he could “fuzzy” the lines of chalk.
- Cut out.
- Add glue to the brown paper.
To minimize glue all over the place and at least at our house lately a major meltdown, I put small a few small marks to guide my son’s gluing. 
This is just a trick to keep him happy- but thought I’d share it , in case your independent minded gluer needs a hand as well.
- Glue the wave on and you are done! I tried to get him to do some drawing on the brown paper but he wanted nothing to do with it. I think what he made was perfect for him and showed it off with much pride. Don’t hesitate to add more detail though.
Books!
“Museum ABC” by the Metropolitan Museum Of Art is a book that was first loved at our house because of the “C is for Cat” page , an early interest of my sons. I loved it because for each letter there are 4 usually very cropped pieces of paintings, showing only that part that fits the subject of each letter. In my nerdy love of identifying paintings I play a game with myself trying to figure out which are which as my son is identifying the letter, and finding the subject matter in each. The book is so beautiful, it’s hard to do it justice in a simple review. A wonderful concept and a great intro to art books for even the tiniest patrons.
“Seen Art?” by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith is one of those books that makes me squeal with delight. The story is funny, and clever and the art included is diverse and some is probably new to most readers. The story is about a little guy who is looking for his friend Art and people keep misunderstanding him and directing him to the MOMA where he is shown art as well as the debate of “But is it art?” plays on as he passes well recognized masterpieces and provocative modern art alike . I was turning the pages too fast for my son I was so excited to see what was next while he wanted to look at the art. I loved the page where he comes to a Monet , you see the little guy from behind and he is very small and despite not seeing his face you can imagine his face frozen with wonder. the book is fantastic and I love the levels of meaning and the sheer amount of art packed into this book. Well Done!
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I am spending the day with my son doing whatever he wants, like playing garbage man! In the spirit of BlogHer and connecting with friends old and new I think it’s time for a updated Blog Roll ! If you are a No Time For Flash Cards reader and are not on my Blog Roll send me your url and I will check it out and add you to my list.
These are a few posts of things we will probably be doing today ( other than playing in recycle bins ) :
Make your own grocery store
Play IS learning
Have a great day , we’ll be back tomorrow with something new, fun and messy!
