Vincent Van Gogh Sunflowers

I have been preparing for my elementary art classes that I am teaching at Sign and Doodle by testing projects with Virginia. This month the kids are learning about Vincent Van Gogh. The first project we are doing is Vincent Van Gogh sunflowers. I found an amazing turtorial on YouTube by an art teacher called Mr. P. 

While we were visiting my parents today, I had Virginia test run the painting. I wanted to see how long it took her to finish. I wanted to see if she could do each step by herself with little to no assistance from me. Most importantly I wanted to see if it kept her interest and if she enjoyed it. I believe I met and exceeded all my goals. She had a great time and the project didn't go to far over her abilities, but still challenged her.

Salt Tray

Today I decided to surprise Virginia with a open sensory play time. I made a salt tray by filling up a old hat box lid with salt and added in a few flat marbles. 

I was curious to see her reaction when I sat it down in front of her and just walked back to the kitchen to clean dishes. I peeked around the corner and she was just looking at it puzzled. Then she stuck one finger in and asked me what it was. I told her a salt tray. Next she asked if she could play in it. I was like yeah! She has played in this tray all day and night. She buried her hand and has played hide and seek with the marbles in the salt with me. This was a huge hit for her and really simple for me to make.

Shadow Puppets: Great for a rainy weekend

This weekend is looking like it may be a rainy day weekend. So Virginia and I are finding ourselves stuck inside. I have been testing a few different projects for my art class. Also trying to come up with fun crafts to do at the Macaroni Kid festival coming up that Sign and Doodle will have a table at. So today I decided to finally try out shadow puppets. I have seen them on blogs and on pinterest and just love them.

Virginia picked out the mermaid. So I googled an image of a mermaid and traced it onto a piece of paper. Then cut it out and taped the paper to a drinking straw. It was that simple. Virginia had a blast playing with it on the wall. I found a card board box and put a white sheet of paper in it for her to use as a theater. She drew waves on the paper to use as a background. Now searching for a princess image as our next puppet.

Silly Monsters

I have been testing art projects with Virginia lately. Planning to use some of the art projects in my art classes at Sign and Doodle this summer. Today we tested the Silly Monster face. This was super easy and alot of fun to see the results.

All it involves is a piece of white paper and paint. I laid the paper horizontal and let Virginia put dots of paint down the middle. It is best to place the dots of paint close to each other.

Next I folded the paper in half and let Virginia smooth the paper out and at the same time moving the paint around. Once she was done I opened the paper and revealed the beginning of our monster face.

We left the paper out in the sun to dry but be sure to place some weight on it in case that day is windy. Once dry I let Virginia decide how many eyes. I cut out white circles and let her glue them to the face. Then I cut out horns and she glued them down. Last we cut out a mouth and teeth and glued those to the face. After that we were done and giggled at our silly Monster face.

Vincent van Gogh…First Self-Portrait

Since I have been hired to teach art classes at Sign and Doodle this summer I have been doing research and trying to come up with lesson plans. One of the classes I will be teaching is Intro to Art for 6 to 8 year olds. I will be introducing them to famous artists. I knew one artist was going to be Vincent van Gogh.

I just happened to stumble upon Small Potatoes blog post on Vincent Van Gogh tonight as I was browsing Pinterest. I loved the idea of doing a self portrait in a mirror. Virginia is starting to branch out with her art and enjoys painting rainbows. But she hadn't tried self portrait. So I didn't know how this was going to go.

You should have seen her face when I told her she could paint on the bathroom mirror and sit on the sink. I think I won mother of the year award right then and there in her eyes. I laid out some washable paint and brushes and a cup of water. I told her she was going to paint a self portrait. This scared her at first but then I broke it down for her and told her to start with her hair and then do a circle for her face. Once she got started she was fine and did the rest with not to much worries. My daughter is a perfectionist and sometimes when things are not perfect she flips out. 

Once she was done painting I pressed a piece of paper onto the mirror and rubbed. She didn't like the way it turned out but there was enough of an outline where we took the paper to the living room and she was able to paint over the outline and make it the way she wanted. Maybe next time I won't rub so much.  And the best part is it cleans right off the mirror with a little window cleaner. 

Overall it was a success and I think I may put it down as a project for my Intro to Art class. 

Colored Ice Balloons

Virginia was highly disappointed when she woke up and found out there was no snow outside. We had just a little snow fall during the night which she got to see and go out in. But by morning it was all gone. I felt really bad for her and wanted to do something cool with her today. So I remembered seeing ice balloons on The Queen Says.

I knew we already had all the supplies in the house. All you need is a balloon, water, and food coloring. Also it helps to be really cold outside or have a freezer. I took our balloon and filled it up with water from the sink. Next comes my first mistake, I took it over to the kitchen table and was going to let Virginia put the food coloring in the balloon. Once I opened the balloon the water went spraying everywhere. I quickly ran back to the sink and let most of the water out and then put the food coloring inside the balloon. 

Next I filled the rest of the balloon with water and tried my best to tie the balloon closed. I did spray water a bit which is messy when it has food coloring in it. But Virginia was giggling the whole time. Once I realized it wasn't cold enough outside for the water to freeze I decided to put it in our freezer. Before I placed the balloon in the freezer I let Virginia feel the balloon and had her make predictions on what was going to happen to the water in the freezer.

Once the balloon was frozen, ( or at least I thought it was ), I cut the top off with scissors and peeled away the balloon. The frozen ball was bright red then I realized the balloon wasn't frozen all the way it had a little leak in the bottom. Lesson learned that I need to leave the balloon in the freezer longer. But it was still cool and left a frozen shell of the balloon for Virginia to explore. She touched it and looked inside and then decided to take it outside to crush. So all in all it was a fun little experiment and just a little messy.

Meet Princess

I love how one blog can lead me to another and then another and I fall upon a new craft idea. This happened today, I was going though my email and looking at all my craft blogs that I love. It lead me to a new blog called Christine Clemmensen. I loved her post on pipe cleaner elves. I liked it even better because I already had all the supplies in my craft room. 

Supplies:

Wooden ball for head

pipe cleaners

yarn

felt

hot glue gun

pom poms

I took the wooden ball and hot glued four pipe cleaners into the center of the ball. My wooden balls already had holes in the bottom of the ball. Then I took the yarn and just started to wrap the pipe cleaners. This took awhile, but I didn't mind I was just watching one of my favorite shows. I kept wrapping until I got the basic body shape that I liked. Next I took the four pipe cleaners and divided them two on both sides for the legs. I hot glued red pom poms on the feet for shoes. 

Next I took a Rapunzel dress to help me measure where the arms needed to go. I took my scrap pipe cleaners and wrapped it and used a little hot glue gun to secure. Then wrapped again to make the arms. And I just bent the pipe cleaners a bit on the end of the arms and wrapped the yarn thick around that area to make hands.

I was lucky and the doll turned out to be the perfect size to wear barbie clothes, but of course my little princess has already requested more clothes for her princess. I did make a simple felt crown for our princess. And I used some of the yarn to make hair for the princess as well. The best thing is my daughter has already determined she would like to put on a puppet show for her friends. These dolls are perfect for a puppet show since the whole body is bendable. Love it!