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In this article, this introduces making arts and crafts with things you may have laying around. This craft includes materials like pipe cleaners, beads, glue, wool/string, buttons, sequins, and scissors. Kate says the main point of this craft, was to dump these supplies on a table, and see what her students would come up with!

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I cleaned out our art cupboard on Saturday night (I know... I am such a party animal!) and I found a huge tangled mess of pipe cleaners shoved in a box. There were too many and they were too good to even consider throwing them out, but I had no idea what we could do with a mangled heap of pipe cleaners... so I did what any other person would do, I shoved them back in the box, and chucked it on the top shelf.

Yesterday afternoon we picked up a package from the post office. It wasn't an exciting package, unless you think new water pumps are cool, but it came with lots of styrofoam packaging in different sized pieces. Again I thought it was too good to throw away, but I had no idea what to do with it, so I was shoving it up on the top shelf when I saw the box of pipe cleaners and I had an idea...
Lets make 3D foam and pipe cleaner sculptures!
What We Used:

styrofoam chunks in various shapes and sizes.

pipe cleaners

beads

buttons

sequins

wool/string

tape

scissors

Later on I thought of some other things I wished we had included - packing peanuts, markers or paint would have been fun too.

I love an activity that only involves me dumping a whole lot of supplies in the middle of the table and then the kids do the rest.

This activity was great for the variety of ages we have too.

Noah, who is three, made abstract pieces and worked his fine motor skills poking pipe cleaners into foam and threading them with beads, buttons and sequins.

Morgan, who is six, was busy working out how to engineer his sculpture so that the pipe cleaner would support a roof and walls.

Zoe and Izzy, who are ten, both made people and then built various structures around them. Later, Izzy created letters and words too.

We had lots of fun with these 'left over' materials. It's amazing to see what my kids can create with just a few bits and pieces!

We still have some pipe cleaners left... what would you do with them?

For more great ideas for preschool aged kids buy this great ebook!

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I cleaned out our art cupboard on Saturday night (I know... I am such a party animal!) and I found a huge tangled mess of pipe cleaners shoved in a box. There were too many and they were too good to even consider throwing them out, but I had no idea what we could do with a mangled heap of pipe cleaners...

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This article talks about this art projects helps children learn shapes and look at different shapes in the world around them. The shapes are used as stamps and the paint will be used to imprint the shape onto a piece of paper. From here, the students can use any color and any shapes available to them.

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Supplies:

Long watercolor paper or canvas boards

Washable tempera paints

Blocks

Directions:

It's pretty self-explanatory. First, squirt the paint onto paper plates or something similar, so the kids have enough room to dip their blocks fully in the paint. Second, tell the kids to dip whatever shapes they want into the paint and then smash onto the paper. The younger kids (toddlers, mostly) will just want to put the shapes anywhere and may spread the blocks around like brushes. That's okay!

The preschoolers can stack the paint shapes into building-like piles. That's okay too! It's process art - so it's about the kids exploring colors and shapes and improving fine motor skills, not about a perfect product.

My Young Artists class allows 2-5 year olds to explore art and engage the senses to help them understand the world around them. Exploring famous artists and their work allows kids to see that they are capable of making beautiful, creative artwork. Plus, exploring famous artists provides a unique way to teach children about basic art techniques.

Group Activity:

Our group activity today was less art-based and more fine motor skill-based, as well as directly related to our artist, Paul Klee: We built with Legos. Since we have kids as young as 2 in the program (and sometimes younger siblings tag along), we used the largest Lego blocks. The kids LOVED building houses, farms, tall buildings, etc. It was hard to pull them into our next activity: the group story.

Group Story:

After we got the Legos put back, I had the kids sit on the storytime cushions to listen to The Cat and the Bird by Geraldine Elschner. It's a picture book based on a Klee painting, this story is a little bit creepy, so I summarized a few of the pages and really focused on finding the bird, the cat, and the buildings in the illustrations. The caregivers had gotten the whole "building" emphasis, so explaining the art project instructions was easy-peasy.

Individual Art:

When I explained their art project to them, I made sure to encourage caregivers to let the kids put their paint "stamps" wherever they wanted. They were good about letting the kids enjoy the process!

At the end of the class, the young artists were happy, the young artists' parents were happy and the young artists' librarian was happy, so it was a successful morning in Young Artists! Woohoo! ​

We all need some more art inspired by important artists! Try these!

Comment below with any unique paintbrushes you love to use!

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How to Paint with Blocks and Learn About Paul Klee

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How To Paint With Blocks and Learn About Paul Klee will guide you through introducing an important artist to toddlers and preschoolers. Or, if you're looking for something simpler, it will guide you through painting with a unique paintbrush - blocks! Thank you to The Pinterested Parent for this idea!

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In this article, Cassie Stephen walks us through creative arts and crafts projects that not only let kids express themselves creatively through colors but also help them practice their writing and phonics skills. This craft uses materials like watercolor paint or markers and acrylic paint. The teacher will be required to do some prep before hand, like folding the paper into enough grids to fit each letter in the alphabet.

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This kindergarten lesson was so fun for my students that I wanted to share! I even created a video of the process. The beginning of this video will show you how to create your own Texture Rubbing Plates with simple supplies like tagboard and hot glue! Here's the video:

I will tell you some things that I did in preparation for this lesson:
* I made a set of texture rubbing plates, about 6 for each pair of students to share. Having a variety really helped them stay engaged in this portion of the lesson.
* With the help of a fellow specials teacher, I folded the paper and created the grid. This took time but I did it well in advance and I'm so glad I did.
* When we did the alphabet, I did have "cheat sheets" for them at their tables to share with their neighbors. This way they could look at the sheet as a reference for writing their letters of the alphabet.
* I prepped the bingo daubers with ink. That's what the kids are using...and a lot of my lessons are currently filled with bingo dauber drawings. I'm addicted!
* For oil pastels, we used Sargent's florescent colors and for water color, we used Crayola's mixing colors. In the video, I am using Jack Richeson watercolor as that's what I had on hand at home.

I see my kindergarten for 40 minutes at a time. For the first class, we talked all about texture and added textures to our squares with the rubbing plates.
For our second class, we painted. This was a review as we do a lot of watercolor paint in art with kindergarten.

On our final art class, we watched a great video on YouTube of the story of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom in song form. It's so cute and the kids loved it. After that, we created two paintings. Our first being these! We simply added our alphabets to our painted papers, so pretty!

My favorite part was hearing the kids sing the alphabet song as they worked.

As soon as they finished, they placed these works of art on the drying rack and got a square paper from the store (what I call my supply gathering area). Then they painted a Chicka Boom painting of all the upper and lower case letters in a heap.

Stay tuned for what we do with these...I'll post a video and lesson right here on Wednesday!

Just loving these and cannot wait to get them up for Read Across America Week. So time to stop blogging and start hanging!

You'll have to let me know if you give this lesson a go!

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In the Art Room: Kindergarten Alphabet Paintings

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This kindergarten lesson was so fun for my students that I wanted to share! I even created a video of the process. The beginning of this video will show you how to create your own Texture Rubbing Plates with simple supplies like tagboard and hot glue!

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In this craft, children will trace their hands and use their fingers to make the tree and surrounding background. Instead of making it spring trees, it can be used to make different types of trees. It uses materials like paint and paper! It can also be accompanied with some glitter for a sparkly touch

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I really look forward to seeing Cherry Blossom Trees flowering every Sprin g. This Spring Fingerprint Tree Craft is part of the thumbprint crafts series and is a perfect one to do to celebrate the season! This thumbprint craft is great for little hands to practice those fine motor skills while creating a beautiful Spring tree!

Materials Needed for the Spring Fingerprint Tree Craft:

Getting the Spring Fingerprint Tree Craft Ready:

To get this craft ready, prepare the tree template the student's hand on a colored piece of paper and then cut it out. This will be the tree trunk template,

Get the paint ready for the kids to use by putting it out onto a plate or something the can press their thumb onto.

It also helps to get the tape ready by rolling it into pieces, ready to use to stick the tree trunk template down. Masking tape works best for this.

Doing the Spring Fingerprint Tree Craft :

The students will start by taping their tree trunk template (made from their hand) onto a white piece of paper using rolled up pieces of tape.

Next, make the green thumbprints for grass. Be sure to make thumbprints close together along the edge of the template.

Next, make pink thumbprints for the cherry blossoms all around the hand area of the tree. Again, be sure to make thumbprints all along the edges, this time around the hand and fingers.

Use blue thumbprints to make the sky. Make the prints all around the rest of the paper and the edges of the middle of the tree.

After the shape is outlined with thumbprints and there are prints all around the paper, let the paint dry.

After the paint dries, slowly pull up the tree trunk template to reveal the tree.

Use brown watercolor paint to fill in the tree trunk.

Now your Spring Fingerprint Tree Craft is complete!
Need more Spring ideas? Rabbit Animal Study Flower CVC Word Building Parts of a Flower You might also like Flower Match Ups!

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I really look forward to seeing Cherry Blossom Trees flowering every Sprin g. This Spring Fingerprint Tree Craft is part of the thumbprint crafts series and is a perfect one to do to celebrate the season! This thumbprint craft is great for little hands to practice those fine motor skills while creating a beautiful Spring tree!

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This article gives you a guide on how to make these super cute and simple pressed flowers sun catchers. This activity allows kids to practice putting things in a collage and uses different materials like pressed flowers, a clear cover, and popsicle sticks. The frame can also be decorated with stickers, glitter or small doodles.

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We made some super easy, super sweet pressed flower sun catchers!

All You Need:

All You Do:

1. Pick and dry some flowers (This is done ahead of time.)

2. Lay out the contact paper and make frame with craft sticks.

3. Cut excess "sticky paper" off.

4. Adorn with beautiful dried flowers.

5. Cover or close up with another sheet of "sticky paper".

6. Hang in a window or an a wall.

Now I will post tons of photos since these girls and this project are so stinking cute!

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Pressed Flower Sun Catchers | Figment Creative Labs

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We made some super easy, super sweet pressed flower sun catchers! All You Need: Flower Press or heavy books and paper Flowers Clear Contact Paper or Clear Book Covers Large Craft Sticks All You Do: Pick and dry some flowers (This is done ahead of time.) Lay out the contact paper [...]

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popsicle sticks can be used in crafts! It ca make frames for art or make big crafts like mini houses! It can be painted and things can be attached to it w/ glue

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air dry clay can be used to create 3D art! It can be painted and colored, and it dries in about 24 hours!

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can be used to make macaroni art! can also be colored or painted 

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oil pastels is a smooth art material that can be blended into one another  to create and ombre affect. 

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these materials can be used to draw and color artwork

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this scissors are used to cut paper but also make different cuts while cutting the paper!

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glitter is another universal art supplies that can be used to make things pop out and comes in different colors and sizes!

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foam stickers come in different shapes and colors! they can also come in a glitter pattern which introduces texture.

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this can be used to make smaller crafts as you can see on the bottom! they're flexible and come in many colors and patterns! 

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for an nature element, I thought about using flowers to put into art. You can do things like pressed flowers and obverse what you see about it! 

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acrylic paint is non-toxic and safe for children to use! It's also washable and can be used for things like finger painting! 

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can be used for a plethora of different crafts and artwork! For example, paper flowers or origami. It can also be accent or accentuate artwork as well.  

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K.CR.1 Use critical analysis to generate responses to a variety of prompts.

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K.CR.1 Use critical analysis to generate responses to a variety of prompts.

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- Identify the lines, colors, and shapes in works of art. (K.CR.1.1)

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K.V.3 Create art using a variety of tools, media, and processes, safely and appropriately.

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K.V.3 Create art using a variety of tools, media, and processes, safely and appropriately.

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- Use the processes of drawing, painting, weaving, printing, collage, mixed media, sculpture, and ceramics to create art. (K.V.3.3)

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K.V.1 Use the language of visual arts to communicate effectively.

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K.V.1 Use the language of visual arts to communicate effectively.

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- Understand characteristics of the Elements of Art, including lines, shapes, colors, and texture. (K.V.1.4)

- Create original art that expresses ideas about oneself. (K.V.1.3)

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- aesthetic
- colors
- textures
- creativity
- shapes & lines
- self - expression
- imagination
- decorative
- painting
- mixed media

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- How would you use these materials?
- What made you want to use (said materials)?
- Which part of your artwork do you like the most and why?
- Where did you get your ideas from when making this art piece?