Paint, Prints, and Glue

To end our 3-D art session, we focused on painting the clay sculptures we made the week before. I mixed paint in small glass jars and set them out on the table to entice the children. The glass jars not only show off the vibrant paint colors, but they also teach the children that they are competent and worthy of working with quality materials. Toddlers don't usually get the chance to work with heavy, glass jars (for a reason! But these are hard to break on the wood floor).
The children were very focused on painting their sculptures as well as the paper-covered table.

Karuna and her daddy, Aaron, work together on her sculpture.
I then added more tools to the table, which Logan took to right away!
Karuna has recently discovered hand-prints. Whenever she has paint on her hands, she slaps them down on some paper and makes a print!
Austin paints with a horse on his clay.
Then he paints the horse!
Karuna and Austin make monoprints together.
As the children moved around, they began to look at the shelf for materials to work with. Austin asked if he could "scoop." I soon realized that he wanted to scoop a cup of collage materials, so I brought the collage bin to the table. Logan then asked for the glue, which he squeezed into a cup of collage materials.
He continued to squeeze this glue for quite a while!
More experiments with glue...




Hmmmm.... interesting.

I love watching the progression of the children's work throughout each class. In the beginning, they are quiet and focused on what's in front of them...
And by the end of class, they are moving around, gathering new materials, experimenting with paint and glue, working together, and still very focused!

Painting Clay... and everything else

For our last class of the session, I offered the children paint to decorate their clay sculptures. I used small glass (baby food) jars to mix and store the paint and then lined them up on the table before class. It is important to me to present the materials in a simple, aesthetically pleasing way so that the children respect them and appreciate their unique qualities. In this case, the clean glass jars allow the children to focus on each of the brilliant colors that they will be working with. There is something so beautiful and appealing about a simple glass jar filled with vibrant paint!
I think Grace agrees...
When the children sat down, I brought them their clay sculptures from last week which were finally dry and ready for paint. The table was covered with white butcher paper, which proved to be much more interesting to paint than their sculptures.

With paint jars in hand, Grace and Karuna soon moved to the easels to work.
Kirsten was more interested in painting with the cars at the table.
Once I brought out some more tools to paint with, the table became very exciting.
Grace was very interested in painting new surfaces- after first painting the wall, she was re-directed to the easel where she worked on painting the easel itself!
Kirsten and Karuna worked together at the acrylic easel, making monoprints.


I love that the kids are now comfortable enough in the studio to go to the shelf when they want to work more materials.

Then they bring the materials back to the table to work with.



Busy, busy, busy!
Kirsten has found something interesting in the fabric bin.
See you next session!

Sculptures with Found Materals

This week the children worked on sculptures using wood scraps and found objects. I gave each child a base of foam board and a glue bottle. The children chose their own materials, which were placed at the center of the table.

Liam began talking about his creation, saying that he was building a rocket ship.

Jordan then said that she was making a castle.
Then Richie said, "I'm making glue!"
Karuna investigates what happens when she squeezes the glue into the cardboard tube.
After a while of experimenting with just the glue, Richie began to add materials to his board.
Liam and Jordan said that they were finished with their sculptures and they moved on to the easels to paint. Soon everyone was up and ready to paint.

Jordan asked if she could paint at the table, so I brought out some more paint and gave everyone paper to work on.

The children began new work in which they combined the sculpture, collage, and painting into one- how creative!
Time to wash up!