Egypt inspired Art

With my usual camera in for cleaning, I tried to catch all the action going on with my point and shoot. I brought back some papyrus paper for the kids to feel and create Egyptian art in the traditional way. There was the full heiroglyphic alphabet in stamps with a key so that everyone could spell their names. Most were having trouble fitting their whole names on one sheet of paper! We also made 3D pyramids which proved to be a bit of a challenage getting them to fit together. But once together the kids went to work gluing different colored sand on each side of the pyramid. (Hint: for different colors of sand put salt in a container with food coloring and shake) We also made colored sand layers in small containers. Some kids made them into beautiful necklaces. I added this acitivity last mintue and the kids loved it, great one for an at home project. I had also printed out some Egyptain coloring pages from the internet - great place to find lots of interesting pages for kids to color. I cut them out and everyone was able to choose the image that they liked, glue it on their papyrus paper, and color. The finished projects were remenisent of the paintings you could purchase everywhere in Egypt.

This week is our last week of the Winter program and we are going to celebrate Spring by planting a seed and decorating the pot. Focus will be on mosaics. Hope to see you there! The Spring program will follow directly after the Winter program starting on April 9th. Note afternoon class time change to 1-2pm.

Egypt Inspired art

This week we are going to explore Egypt through colored 'sand', pyramids, papyrus paper, and hieroglyphics. We will learn Arabic numbers 0-9 and the hieroglyphic alphabet through stamps and stencils. The kids will decorate 3D pryamid cut outs with colored sand and explore papyrus paper with paint.
We look forward to seeing everyone again soon.
Becky & Iyla

Stamps & Stencils

The wonderful and endless world of stamps!!! Today each table had a kind of grouping of different kinds of stamps. We had the traditional rubber and foam stamps with ink pads. The kids got very creative and started coloring their stamps with felts and stamping them down! It worked great! Something I would never have thought of, I love kids! We had the magic marker table that was a huge hit with the older girls. But I have to credit that to crayola. I just thought that tracing stencils would be way more fun if you used magic markers! We had your regular kitchen utensils, the gravy beaters were very popular. I loved the pattern the masher left behind. Actually the egg cartons were very cool as well, they looked like bolts. We had a sponge table where I took regular sponges and cut out shapes. I also loved the texture of these. Reminded me of a dried bubble pattern? Oh and a great one for home is sticky back foam shapes stuck to matte board or card board rolls. The kids can stick the foam onto the board and then use that as a home made stamp. The card board roll was awesome because it made an endless line of stamping fun! All you need for ink pads are facecloths folded into 4s and then watered down tempura paint soaked into the cloth.
I am off to Egypt next week so I will see all of you on the 26th!!

Painting with Chance

Painting with chance was such a fun day! Everyone loved the salad spinners and paint, they turned out beautiful. Malaika had a great idea of turning them into a mobile once they were dry. For those of you that missed last class, watch for my art tutorial on what to do with salad spinners and paint on 'Our Big Earth'.
We brought out the marbles and paint as well. They were creating some great paint tracks. I was finding marbles all over the floor during clean up. I am sure that I didn't find them all. So that everyone knows, I kept all the left behind art and it is dry and ready to take home next week.
Some great print making took place in the afternoon class where the kids explored mixing the paint together with their fingers, sometimes drawing in the paint and then putting paper on top and making a print on paper. These turned out amazing! Almost like paper blots.
We also tried paper towel dying. We folded the paper towel up and then dipped the towel into the food coloring and then unfolding the towels and seeing the wonderful designs left behind. They were hard to unfold so there was some discusion around using cotton material which would probably look great.
I had a great time, took me alittle while to wake up from my morning haze, but all the smiles were so worth it!

Last week before break!!!!

This is our last week before a 2 week break.

This class we are going to explore stamps and stencils. More painting, some tracing and ink.
Hope to see you there!
Becky & Iyla

Painting Surprises

This week will be filled with tons of surprises when we put the paint in, shake it up, and then take a look! The wonderful and interesting world of chance.

Salt Dough Recipe

Salt Dough Recipe

2 cups of plain flour
1 cup of salt
1 cup of warm water

Knead the dough for about 5-10 mins. Make shapes and let air dry for 30-48 hrs or cook for about an hr (depending on size of shapes) in oven at about 175 F. Let cool and paint.