Creative beginnings for tiny tots

Posts tagged ‘temperas’

Have You Seen Trees?

This lovely book written by Joanne Oppenheim and illustrated by Jean and Mou-Sien Tseng

inspired life-sized art, as we posed like trees and got to stretch our limbs as we drew and painted on large paper posted on the wall.  Working large, on a vertical surface, makes the act of drawing and painting very much a gross motor (rather than fine motor) activity.  The arms move from the shoulder down to the hand, and the entire trunk is engaged for balance as children paint in a standing or squatting position.

Have you seen trees?  High trees, wide trees, reaching-to-the-sky trees….

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ART IN HAND classes in action, art projects and media, Early Childhood Education and Development

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The Art of Springtime

As we kick off another spring session, I wanted to share with you all an article I wrote for Washington Parent magazine a few years back.  I hope it inspires you to make the most of the creative possibilities that surround your wherever you are.

Washington Parent: The Art of Springtime

Category:

Art and creativity at home, art projects and media, Early Childhood Education and Development

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“Beautiful hands!”

Remember our friend who was hesitant to get the messy paint on her hands due to sensory issues, but had a breakthrough when we did our monoprinting activity two weeks ago?

Well, look at her now…

She spent most of the class time delighting in this new sensation, all the while repeating the words, “Beautiful hands” as both affirmation and reassurance that all was well.

All that positive self-talk must have done the trick because before long she had moved on to the tactics of my most hard-core finger painters…the squeezing of the paint-soaked spongy balls (golf-ball shaped cat toys, actually, which I highly recommend as painting tools).  To this, she adopted the mantra, “Squeeze!  Squeeze!”

Gratifying all around!

Category:

art projects and media, Early Childhood Education and Development

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Wordless Wednesday

Inspired by the paintings in this lovely wordless picture book:

the artwork that ensued needs no words…

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art projects and media

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Gallery

The Beauty of Black and White

Always a crowd pleaser, Kevin Henkes’ “Kitten’s First Full Moon” inspired monochromatic studies in black and white this week.

We introduced found objects as painting tools (cotton swabs, lids of various sizes, tubes, and round pieces of foam) to expand notions (for the tots and their adult partners) of ways to make marks on paper, as well as to reinforce connections to the repeating circle images in the story.

Magnificent modern art!

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on February 29, 2012