I picked up a great deal while visiting my parents a while back. Their local newspaper sells the remnant rolls of newsprint, in a variety of sizes, for next to nothing. I think I spent $3 on a roll that just happened to be the perfect length for my easel, with enough paper on it to last me a year at least! Newsprint is certainly lower grade quality than your typical art paper. It tends to yellow a little over a long period of time, so it’s not what you would want to use for framed artwork. It is great, however, for high volume projects; those times that kiddos just want to experiment over and over (pretty much all the time). It’s also great for covering tables for large group collages and murals, or just for protecting the table. Really, for three bucks, you could use it for just about anything, and you still get your money’s worth! Check out your local newspaper to find out if they sell their remnant rolls of newsprint. Additionally (in case you wonderful people need more reasons to feel good about yourselves) using this newsprint is a great way to recycle a spent resource while also conserving new resources. So you can be green and save green all at the same time! Can’t really beat that, can you?
Art in the Preschool Classroom: Finding Reality and Fantasy
One of the classes I’ve been taking this summer is “The Arts in Every Classroom” (you can view the same class here). The arts seem easily incorporated into preschool, as the children are very naturally using music, movement, and visual art as a means of expressing themselves, almost constantly! This class gave me a few new insights into incorporating the arts that I may not have considered before and I hope to be able to utilize the arts more in the future. I’m particularly excited to utilize it during my “Experiencing the Arts through the Senses” theme I have planned for January!
As part of the culminating assignment, I needed to teach an art lesson. Since I don’t start my school year until September, I used two of my own cutie pies as my star pupils. I thought I’d share what we did here, in case you’d like to implement a similar lesson!
Rock Rumble – Shake Painting with Rocks!
Here’s a fun and noisy way to paint without much of a mess.
To start, you need large containers with lids, paper, and paints (I used craft paint just because I had it and need to use it up. It’s more permanent on clothes, but most of the mess stays inside the cans, and I was doing this on a messy clothes day anyway. You could certainly use the more friendly tempera paint.) Oh, and you’ll need rocks! Lots of little rocks. Doing this activity outside is certainly helpful!
The Spectrum of Preschool Arts and Crafts
I recently got a great compliment from a parent. At least I think it was a compliment. She said, “I love that you have these random art projects!” Now, as I said, I do believe she sincerely meant it as a complement, but it got me wondering. Certainly I can see how creating collages with seeds, fingerpainting with colored shaving cream , and dropping colored water on coffee filters may seem a little random, but random as compared to what? I think when most people envision preschool arts, they see the paper plate snowmen, the construction paper alphabet train, and woven paper place mats. These aren’t actually arts, they’re closer to crafts. Now I’m not saying crafts aren’t appropriate for preschoolers, I quite enjoy making paper plate snowmen and I think the children do to. I just hate to see crafts used at the exclusion of art. Let me explain how I see them as different.
Lumpy Bumpy Dinosaur Scales
As you’re talking to your preschoolers about dinosaurs, it’s great to talk about what they might have looked like. No one was around to see them, so no one knows for sure, but paleontologists have used some clues to help them make some really good guesses. Some “mummified” dinosaur remains show dinosaurs with scales. That would make sense since they are considered reptiles! (The name brontosaurus actually means “thunder lizard”, just a tid-bit kids love to hear.) Here’s a great activity to explore the scaly nature of dinosaur skin while also building creativity and motor skills.
Start this one out with a discussion about dinosaur’s skin. I have used the book Dino Pets, by Lynn Plourde to introduce this idea, since it does a great job of illustrating and comparing the many characteristics of dinosaurs. I’ve also used samples of leather (or imitation leather, it may be easier to come by) for the children to feel the bumpy, scaly texture. Then, using a dinosaur outline as your base, (I found these dinosaur outlines online), have the children rip colored paper into small pieces and glue them on the dinosaur to represent the dinosaur scales. (It may be easiest just to cover the dinosaur with your glue stick before tearing.) Don’t be tempted to cut the paper for them! The tearing action utilizes the pincer grasp and builds fine motor strength and control. These are all skills children need to develop in order to have the physical ability to write. Of course, since we have no way to be sure what colors the dinosaurs were, the children can use their imaginations and implement any colors they like. Challenge their creativity and talk to them about their ideas as they make their own colorful dinosaurs. Where would such a colorful dinosaur live? What is it called? What does it eat?
Seed Mosaics – Two Ways!
Because seeds come in such a wide array of colors, sizes and textures, they are great for creating mosaics and collages. You may want to use a collection of seeds that are already mixed, maybe seeds leftover from another activity, like rain sticks. You could also take the time to open several containers of seeds and look at each type. Compare the seeds to the plants they grow into, as well as to each other. Either way, the variety of seeds gives a great opportunity to introduce a multitude of descriptive words, as well as the concept of comparing and contrasting.
To make the mosaics, you can take your pick of these two ways. The first is the standard Elmer’s glue method. I like to put the paper on an art tray to control the strays, and provide a jar lid of glue and a paintbrush to make it easier for the children to control how much glue they use and where it ends up. The children can apply the glue and then select their seeds from a nearby container and sprinkle them where they’d like.
Birdseed Playdough
It seems like an obvious recipe, and indeed it is, but here’s a picture recipe in case it helps:
Start with the Classic Playdough Recipe.
Make at Home Montessori
I bet you didn’t know they were giving out free Montessori tools at your local hardware store! I’ll tell you how, but first I must start with the disclaimer that I am not a Montessori teacher. I studied child development, and so, I examined a range of developmental theory and teaching philosophy. I find that as I teach, I don’t strictly espouse any one pedagogy but pick from the variety I studied and implement them as they fit the child and circumstance. That being said, I would like to share with you a little discovery I made recently.
Butterfly Fold Art
Here’s a great butterfly art project that is not only fun and fancy, but reinforces small motor skills and creativity, as well as the concept of symmetry.
Prepare these supplies:
Finger-painting with Shaving Cream!
Finger-painting is an experience that no preschooler should be denied! Plunging bare fingers right into the mushy, colorful goodness and then spreading color directly from finger to paper is a gratifying experience for both the young and the young at heart! It promotes fine motor development, and is ideal for children for whom manipulating tools is difficult. It is also a fantastic sensory experience, both for touch and also for smell and sound depending on the medium used. There are plenty of different ways to do finger-painting (I’ll try to give you a few to choose from on this site) but perhaps one of the easiest ways is to use shaving cream! Shaving cream is a great medium from an adult perspective because it’s cheap, accessible, and extremely washable. Kids love it because it’s foamy! (OK, I love it because it’s foamy too.)