Art

Halloween Spider Art

by Leave a Comment

I love when children can express themselves using the creative arts.
My colleague in the classroom next to mine shared their preparation for Halloween and were more than happy to let me take photos of their amazing creations and share them with you!
These spiders are super easy to make and are a great fine motor activity!

 First, grab a black pom pom and twist half of a pipe cleaner around it.

Then, twist a second half pipe cleaner around it so it looks like the photo below.
Finally, twist two more around the pom pom. Twist and bend them to look like creepy legs!

The students had a lot of fun creating a wide variety of different looking spiders!

They really enjoyed hiding them all around the room – especially in and around their jack o’lanterns!

Books for Learning About Colors!

by Leave a Comment

I love exploring art through picture books. 
It is easy, engaging and hooks kids into learning. 
I hope you enjoy looking through the books I have used over the years in either lessons or as an art provocation to help teach children about colors.

I personally like having my own copies of books for an easy reference and to avoid many trips to the library!

If you’re interested in picking up these books I’ve included my affiliate links in this post at the bottom of the page.

COLORS

By: Monique Felix

This is a story with pictures only of a curious little mouse who has an adventure with paint. It has some fun mixing colors in a color pallet and creating primary colors as the result!

PANTONE COLORS

This book is a great book for exploring shades and hues of colors. I will often put this out as a simple provocation with just a single color and white paint for kids to explore making different variations. Amazingly beautiful art is always a result of this as a provocation.

A Color of His Own

This is a picture book about animals and their colors. It explores how chameleons can change colors in a fun way that encourages friendships.

White Rabbit’s Color Book

By: Alan Baker
White Rabbit has an adventure mixing primary colours! 

GROWING COLORS

By: Bruce McMillan
This book explores a variety of food that grows in many different colors.

Canada in Colours 

By: Per-Henrik Gurth
Looking for some Canadian content? This book is great for acknowledging where colors are naturally seen throughout Canada!
If you’re interested in getting your own copy these quick links are for you to view them on Amazon.

Books To Inspire Line Art

by Leave a Comment

My favorite way of introducing any art concept is through a book. It provides meaning and a deeper understanding for students. I also love it when kids are given the opportunity to show what they know. They always prove to have amazing skill and talent beyond what we realize.

A Beautiful OOPS!
This book is the perfect book for children to realize that mistakes can be turned into something beautiful. 

10 Black Dots
This book is the perfect book for children to see circles all around them. Great for inspiring art and allowing children to use their own creativity as they pick how many dots they want to use in their own picture!

Not A Stick
What can a stick be turned into? Have students be creative and show their imagination using their artistic or creative building skills!

Not A Box
Clearly, it is not a box! Students will be inspired to turn a square into something inspirational.

Not A Box
Children will learn how we can change the look of a simple shape to create many different things!

 Not A Box
This book is fantastic for learning how similar shapes can make a variety of different creations! All inspired by a little wind! 😉

Ish
This is a story of children who learn that it is okay to make and create things “ish” like. This is one of my favourite artistic books to inspire creativity.

Scribble
This book explores how shapes learn how to get along with each other. It is a great book to use to explore creativity, imagination and friendship!

The Dot
A story of a girl who is frustrated creating art but then learns, as she goes through the learning pit, that she is artistic and creative. 
A Little Bit of OOMPH!
Turn something ordinary into something extraordinary with a little bit of “oomph!” It is a fun engaging books that kids will truly enjoy!


Do you have any other favourite books to inspire line art? Please feel free to list below or email me! I’d love to add to this list!

Snow Provocations: Having Fun in the Snow

by Leave a Comment

Engaging in the snow is often our students favourite activity.

Usually for the first snowfall we do not set out anything to engage our students as they are filled with pure joy of playing in the snow with their friends.

After the initial “buzz” wears off we like to change up the learning environment to provide new opportunities for learning.

Spray Painting The Snow

Our students love to spray snowmen, pictures, words, patterns and designs in the snow!

The following image is a colourful snow fort! We reuse dried out washable markers and even have asked the whole school community for donations for our cause!


What you need: several good quality spray bottles, washable dried out markers, a tote to carry the bottles outside

Directions

The night before we go outside I place two to three dead markers with water into high quality spray bottle that will not leak and can withstand the cold without cracking.

Shake them in the morning and the colour will become more vibrant! Our spray bottles are in a little plastic tote which is easy to carry outside.

We usually have at least 5 bottles to spray but prefer more.

Painting Fun 

We have learned that we always have to give the students a lesson at not aiming at their friends bodies.

Only aim at the snow!

We usually set a timer for how long students can use the spray bottle. Some children easily share but often this needs to be teacher directed! I can usually refill the bottles with more water one to two more times before they no longer leach out any colour into the water. 

It is simple enough to empty the bottle, add new markers and refill with water ready go go for the next day of fun in the snow!

Snow Painting

Painting the snow is a simple provocation. All you need is snow, paint and water to spread the paint!

What you need:

Old paint brushes you don’t mind getting wrecked in the snow
A bucket to hold the trays of water paint
A jar filled with water 
Although this is a lot of fun, it can be very messy!

The top image above is the paint tray before the students started painting and the bottom image is at the end of our outside learning.

Be prepared for a little bit of clean up!

Snowmen Ornaments

This past year we used salt dough ornaments with our students. They loved using their creativity to paint them after they had pressed their fingerprints into their ornament to make the body of the snowman.

These ornaments must be dried out before you can paint them so be sure to safely poke the hole through before you dry them out.

Each ornament was beautiful and unique!

Wooden Snowflakes

We left a variety of different popsicle sticks out at the art table with glue and let the kids go wild. They did!

Snowmen Art

The day of our first snowfall we provided the following materials and note the amazing snowman art that resulted!

What you need: 3 different sizes of white paper,  1 blue background sheet,  1 little square orange piece, some glue and  tiny cup with a little bit of white paint with Q-Tips 
I hope you found some great ideas for activities to use with your students this winter!

Mix It Up! Experimenting with Color

by Leave a Comment

Parents often comment that the science experiments we do in the class are among the most memorable events that their kids talk about at home! Mixing colors is always a hit!
It is actually a really easy experiment to explore primary and secondary colors. 

You will need: 

A tray
Clear cups
Food dye (primary colors)
Strips of folded paper towels

Learning Environment

During the experiment we put out papers for the children to document their observations. 
There often is a wide variety of representation for what they see. Younger children often just show the colors and older children actually draw the cups with more detail and write about it. 
After, we sometimes use the “new” secondary colors to mix and make new colors to observe.
To extend learning, we sometimes discuss why the water might stop moving from one container to the other.