Fun and Low Cost First Day Art Mural

Hello everyone - it's been a while since my last post. We were away in France and had very little Internet. It was a big adjustment for me and the kids to not have WiFi, but it allowed us to focus on low tech activities...like playing cards, scrabble and of course, art!

I will tell you about my adventure in France a little later, but first I wanted to share with you a Fun and Low Cost first day art project. I love collaborative projects for the first day because requires students to communicate and work together to produce a special piece of art. In addition, it is great for introduction to the elements of art.

Juan Miro and Paul Klee and two great artist that that come to mind when working in groups. 

Image: Experiments in Art Education

Have students to outline their shapes- squares, circles, triangles, etc.. (no need to sketch) with black tempera paint. Then have them connect the shapes using lines - straight, zig-zag, wave, etc... Allow paint to dry for a bit (in AZ it only takes a couple of seconds) and then fill in the shapes using bold colors.

Image: Gretchen's Art

Great for all levels, even kindergartners, just make sure to have extra hands to help out. After you are done displaying the murals, you can cut it up to size and then everyone will get a piece to take home.

TIP: If you don't have large craft paper, use the back of an old poster.

How about you? What kind of art project do you like to do on the first day?

Cherry Blossom Inspired Painting

With cherry blossoms in full bloom from mid March to Mid April, it inspired me to offer cherry blossom painting during this month's Art Masterpiece. The transcendent beauty of the cherry blossoms have inspired many artists, including Japanese artist Ohara Koson, who was famous for his flower and bird paintings.

Cherry Blossom by Allessanra

We painted our own cherry blossoms using a fun and creative technique using drinking straws. I'm all about using inexpensive or recycled materials, and everyday items found around our home. It doesn’t get any easier – painting using a drinking straw! 

Set out some straws (I had the bendy ones), sheets of block print paper, and some black tempera paint that is thinned out with water and pink tempera for the cherry blossoms. The paint needs to be thin (about the consistency of milk) so that it will move across the page when blown with the straw.

 

Video by victoriarestrepo.com

Drop a small amount of paint onto your paper, next position your straw close to the paint and blow. Move the straw upwards and outwards moving the paint into different directions to create tree branches.

Cherry Blossoms by Brooke

Cherry Blossoms by Annika

CHerry Blossoms by Sarah

Cherry Blossom by Yibo

It was a lot of fun watching students try to maneuver the paint. Some got the hang of it, while others couldn't quite figure out that they had to continuously blow through the straw while moving upwards to keep the paint moving.

Visiting Washington, DC during cherry blossom festival is something I highly recomend. How about you? Have you seen cherry blossoms in person?

Painting Tips for Pre-K and Kindergarten

Teaching 3, 4, and 5 year old children to paint can challenging. However, when you see their eyes light up with discovery it is wonderful and can be fun for both of you.

Start off by using a good brush. One that has a wider handle with smooth bristles. Cheap, stiff brushes are not nearly as good for spreading paint.

Demonstrate how to use big, sweeping arm movements for broad paint strokes (petting a cat is a good analogy) and then small movements for small strokes. Let the children experiment with both.

For little kids, try not to use small watercolor pan paints that come in the trays. Watercolor sets with larger color wells are best at this age.

Tempera cakes provide brilliant color in a convenient package.

Try not fuss about paint colors mixing together in the palettes. It's okay if it gets a bit messy.  By the end of kindergarten and first grade you  will be able to tell them about paint manners.

Teach them about primary and secondary colors by mixing your own paint.

• 1 cup of water
• 1 cup of flour (for gluten free version use Cup4Cup)
• 1 cup of salt
• food coloring

Give Pre-K students lots of opportunity to free-paint. Keep instruction and direction to a minimum. Always react to paintings in neutral and enthusiastic manner :-).

With a few cheap and simple materials, students can begin to express themselves in color!

What tips and tricks do you have for working with Pre-K and kindergartners?