Watercolor & Texture

For our final class of the summer, the 2s/3s group explored liquid watercolors in all sorts of fun ways. We began by using droppers to form droplets of the watercolor onto our paper. With a lot of practice, these kids have become really skilled with the droppers (which is great preparation for pre-writers!)

With small pools of watercolor to work with, I offered the children straws to try to blow the paint around their paper. This required a little bit of work and concentration, but a few of the kids really got the hang of it!

After lots of dropping, blowing, and pouring the watercolors, I offered the kids a few items (bubble wrap, a sponge wand, and a paper towel) to add texture to their work. I showed them how the different materials can be dabbed onto the watercolor to create texture and interesting designs.

With all this experimenting the children's papers began to get very saturated, so we switched them out for new paper and moved on to yet another form of watercolor... ice paints. These paints were made by freezing liquid watercolor in an ice try with craft sticks for handles. The kids loved moving the ice paints back and forth and noticing how it made a rubbing of the textured tray beneath their paper.

As our final texture experiment, I offered the kids scoops of salt to add to their paints. When wet, the salt soaks up the paint and is fun to move around. When dry, some of the salt falls off the paper and creates a blotchy texture underneath.

Towards the end of class we moved to the easels where the kids made oil pastel/watercolor resists. They first drew a design with oil pastels, then used spray bottles filled with liquid watercolor to add to their work.

Thanks for a wonderful summer session! In August, I'll be posting some projects you can do at home... I hope you give them a try!

Two Types Of Collage

This week the 1s and 2s classes worked on two different types of collages. The 2s class tried out the Summer Inspired Upcycled Collage project from a few weeks ago. I used paper shape-punchers on old group paintings to create fun, interesting collage materials again- but this time I added the step of drawing with oil pastels before doing the collage. After drawing, I offered the children glue and collage materials to create their collage.

The 1s/early 2s class created collage frames by mixing their own paste, applying it to cardboard, then adding collage materials. First each child mixed together flour, salt (as a preservative), and watered down tempera paint. They stirred and stirred until they created a thick paste to use as an adhesive for their collage.

After scooping the paste onto their cardboard, the children used various scraping tools to spread it around.

While working on their collage, some kids chose to add glue to make the materials stick better. They also wanted to add more flour just because it is fun to scoop and dump!

After working on the collages, both classes had some time left to paint at the easels (and on the windows!) and to get into some messy painting projects.

See you soon!

Watercolor & Oil Pastel Batik

For our watercolor week in the 1s/2s class I was planning for an ice painting and oil pastel resist project like we did in the mixed age class. Before class began I came across some extra fabric lying around and decided to experiment with an oil pastel and watercolor batik instead. I taped the fabric to a tray so that it wouldn't move around when the kids tried to draw on it. I first offered them white oil pastels to use on white cotton fabric, which is not at all exciting to toddlers (even when I tried to explain that they would magically see their drawing appear when they painted it). Here, a big sister demonstrates the first step.

 After a very brief drawing experience, I offered the kids liquid watercolor to paint onto their work.

 Even with the light pressure of a toddler, the oil pastel still showed up and resisted the watercolor, creating a batik effect.

After trying out the batiks, I finally brought out the ice painting project-  offering them colorful oil pastels, watercolor ice paints and paper.

Eventually the kids began to collect items from the shelf to use in their paintings.

 A fun day of watercolor experiments!

Watercolor Ice Painting Resists

This week the mixed-age art class worked on oil pastel and watercolor resists. The children began by drawing pictures with oil pastels.

When they were ready to start painting, I brought out a special surprise... watercolor ice paints! Now that the weather is warm, it's the perfect time to paint with ice. The night before, I froze liquid watercolor and craft sticks in an ice tray. By class time the next day, I had an exciting new medium to paint with.

Our outside activities included golf ball, car, dot, and roller painting- and of course lots of water play!

Leaf Rubbings and Exploring Pastels

For our final week of the session, we focused on leaf rubbings and pastels. The children first learned how to create an imprint of a leaf by placing it under the paper then rubbing on top of the paper with the side of a crayon.

After trying out the leaf rubbings, I offered the children chalk pastels to explore.

They experimented with rubbing, drawing, and blending this soft, dusty medium.

Then I offered them water and a brush to see what would happen if the pastel got wet. As they painted their drawings with water, the chalk dust mixed with the water and turned it into a colorful paint.

After wetting their papers, they drew again with the pastel and noticed how the colors became darker against the water.

Being our first drawing project for the youngest 1s class, we focused on making marks with oil pastels, then trying out liquid watercolor over the drawings.

No matter what age, all the classes love to paint, mix, and pour watercolors. Especially when glitter is involved!

The 1s classes also got to do some major sensory painting with foam paint.

Foam paint on the acrylic easel adds a twist to this sensory experience!

Remember the clay etching experiment in the 3s/4s class? The clay was dry and finally ready for the 3rd step to complete the process. In order to try to rub off some of the top paint, the children moved sand paper around in circles on top of their clay. The hope was that this would roughen up the top, leaving mostly the paint inside the scratches, so their design would stand out.

It was a little hard to sand off the top layer of paint, but they did manage to achieve a cool effect!

Thanks everyone for a great school year and final session. I had a blast!