Getting to know myself

Yesterday the children and I did a simple little activity.

First, we wrote our names at the top of a page (some used their name cards for assistance) and then we traced our own hands.

In one hand, we drew ourselves. In the other I asked them to draw their favourite things. Some drew cars, some drew their families and some just DREW.

I loved this activity as it drew on so many skills –

* writing

* pencil grip

* fine motor skills

* tracing

* imagination

* self representation

* self awareness

* size, space – will both my hands fit on this page?

It promoted conversation and required the children to think before acting. It was also a great activity for seeing who could follow instructions!

"I love cars and the planets, so here is a car going AROUND a planet!"

SNOWMEN!

Recently one of my students went to the snow. He has spent the entirety of this week pretending to ski using the wooden blocks and pretending to throw snowballs. My assistant also went to the snow and (shame on her!) forgot to take a photo of the snowman she built!

We live a mere two hours from good snow fall and over the past few weeks I have heard many a discussion amongst the preschoolers about snow, snowmen, snowflakes and all things coooooold. With so much interest going around I thought it time we made ‘snowmen’ in our room!

I started by providing a variety of materials and a very basic ‘snowman template’ (two circles)…

Buttons, googly eyes, paper squares, cotton balls, pop sticks, textas and glue

Then I asked the children – “What might we make with all of this?” The answer was unanimous – “SNOWMEN!”

The children were delighted to have the freedom to create their snowmen however they pleased, and the results speak for themselves!

I don’t think I’ve ever seen better snowmen. 🙂

Colour Diffusing Paper!

Yesterday I tackled the massive feat of cleaning out my arts and craft cupboard, a task not dealt with since late January. Since that time, many an item has been thrown haphazardly into the depths by myself or my assistant and it was becoming impossible to find anything in there. In a rare quiet window of time I delved into the chaos and wow! The things I discovered! Things that I didn’t even realise were there (which reminded me that it was my assistant who cleaned the bottom half of the cupboard last time – I had no idea what was there)!

It was like Christmas Day for me.

One of the magnificent things that I found was a packet of colour diffusing paper (which you can buy here). Basically, you draw/colour on the paper with markers, food colouring, dye… then you lightly mist the paper with water and voila! Watch the colours diffuse and blend throughout the page. Magic!

The children thought this paper was absolutely the best thing ever – we spent part of our afternoon drawing our favourite animals in markers and then spraying them, watching them become ‘furry’ as the colours spread along their pages.

I loved hearing their descriptions of what the paper felt like (soft and dry were two that I heard repeated) and their excitement as the colours diffused. Interestingly enough, brown marker had the best reaction as we found the colour green seperated from the brown quite strongly!

Hurray for ‘magic’ paper!

Painting at Preschool

I am always looking for was to make painting a little bit ‘different’. Here are some of the different painting activities we have dabbled with at preschool so far this year:

• Fork painting
• Balloon painting
• String painting
• Cotton tip painting
• Mini spinner painting (painted patty pans on paper)
• Marble painting
• Elastic band (snap) painting (thanks to Irresistible Ideas for Play Based Learning for this one!)
• Tootbrush painting
• Painting with cardboard tube
• Finger painting
• Painting with sponges
• Painting with lids
• Painting with leaves
• Hand painting
• Dropper painting with coloured water
• Painting with cotton filters
• Painting using toy cars
• Chalk paint (chalk and water)
• Tiny paintbrush painting
• Pop stick painting
• Shave foam marbling (food colouring)
• Food colouring painting on wax drawings (magic! Invisible pictures made visible)

Creations, Not Copies

I’m a big believer in ‘freedom of expression’ when it comes to art and craft activities in my preschool room. While being able to follow directions is important, I see very little fun in getting the children to create 20 identical creatures to put on the wall. Why have that when you could have 20 unique creations to put up? When I set up an art activity, there might be a theme or a general end product to work towards, but how they choose to get there is entirely up to them and if they go ‘off course’ – well, that can be even more interesting!

I think we learn more about how children process their surroundings and experiences by allowing them to make their own decisions, rather than telling them how to do something. As I say to my four year-olds – If I do it for them then it’s not THEIR work – it’s mine.

Two very different but equally beautiful unicorns!

Paper, Pencils and Scissors

Next time you’re searching for a colouring book for your budding artists – stop!  A pile of blank paper and some writing implements may be all they need! So much more open-ended than a stencil and the possibilities are endless as to what they can create!

Making dinner one night and I handed the girls a pile of paper, a pencil case of coloured pencils and a couple of pair of safety scissors. No further instruction was given past “Go and sit and the table and draw” but look at what my girlies created!

My pre-kinder girl immediately began ‘writing her name’ – lots of circles and squiggly lines, lots of cutting (lots of paper everywhere!) – it was a mess but she was having a ball!

My big school girl set to making ‘a zoo around a rainbow’. Once little girl saw what her big sister was doing she joined in. Her animals may not have been as easy to spot as her sisters but they were exactly as she made them and she loved them. See below for my big girls photos (as little girl cut hers up into tiny scraps of paper – scissors are fun!)…

Crocodile *snap*

A zebra that would make any other zebra jealous

Lion
I love his big roaring mouth

Mouse *squeak*

A beautiful rainbow for the animals to sit around

A tiger – again with a big roaring mouth.

There you have it – the ‘rainbow zoo’ that now takes pride of place on our fridge. 🙂