Sewing

The Pre-K children and I tried something new and different this week. 

Some of them knew a little bit about sewing from family members but most had never tried it before.  Not being one who sews myself, this was a simple project that I could get into.  I offered the children fabric squares, plastic needles threaded with yarn, and large buttons.  We practiced sewing the buttons on the fabric. 

Tissue Paper Tiles

I have a bunch of small tiles from the recycle center and I thought they would make great little works of art. 

I gave the children tissue squares and glue and we began ripping and cutting the tissue and creating designs on the tiles.  Every one is unique and cool.  I attached magnets to the back so they could put them on the fridge.  

Canvas Work-mini canvases, oil, rock salt, and liquid watercolor

We love doing canvas work in the art studio.  Today, I offered the Pre-K children mini canvases, liquid watercolors, cooking oil, and rock salt.  We talked about how these materials would react together and to use the oil and salt sparingly as to not add too much to the mini canvases. 

The children experimented with the colors and were excited to add the oil and salt.  We watched as the salt soaked up the paint and the oil created some interesting textures as it spread and mixed the paints together. 

After the paintings dried and the effects from the oil and salt were visible, we rubbed off the excess salt to reveal some cool mini masterpieces. 

Paper Mosiacs

As an introduction to mosaics, I offered the children small pieces of graph paper and paper mosaic tiles knowing that filling it would probably be all the attention span they would have for this project.  

The children spent a good amount of time finding the colors they wanted and mapping out a pattern or, in some cases, making a random pattern.  This was also a great fine motor activity since the mosaic tiles are so small and require some dexterity.  

Goopy, Slimy, Messy Things

Today, we tried different combinations of ingredients to make goopy concoctions.

We mixed shampoo and corn starch, glue and starch, paint and slime solution, as well as corn starch and water.  

Fine Motor Activities- Part 2

Here are some other things we have done in the art room this year

lacing on skewers

lacing pipe cleaners and beads on colanders

I sprayed a pumpkin with chalkboard paint and the children used chalk on it

Fall card decorating-fall papers, stickers, buttons, hole punches

Googly eyes glued to small pieces of paper.  The children used colored pencils to create faces

The toddlers hammered golf tees into Styrofoam

We used crayons on all different textures as a sensory activity

Light Table Activities

Here is what was on the light table in the art room:

Halloween table scatter and letters

many, many materials to sort

plastic ice cube shapes and colored bins

simple mandala, flat marbles, and mosaic pieces

plexiglass samples and critters

plastic bags filled with hair gel, beans, table scatter,and plastic spiders

art patterns and flat marbles

lots of buttons, spoons, and a plastic tray