In my neighborhood

Children enjoyed creating colorful neighborhoods and cities with me at the OKCMOA last weekend for Drop-in Art.

We talked about architecture and our neighborhoods and immediately began to get to work.

Think about what is in your neighborhood: houses, apartment buildings, sky scrapers, dog houses, schools, hospitals, museums, trees, parks, etc.

Cut your buildings from colorful cardstock.



Arrange cut buildings, trees, etc and glue down in three levels.





We use oil pastels to add details to our buildings. Oil pastels can be messy. Don't take too much paper off the pastel at a time and try to keep the back of your hand off the paper to avoid smearing.



So much fun. They are all so different, I love them all!

You will need:
-Cardstock
-Oil Pastels
-Scissors
-Glue sticks
-Pencils and erasers optional

Shape Stampede

Shapes and Stamping were all the rage last week at Tiny Tuesday at the OKCMOA. I had plenty of supplies for little ones ages 2-5 to stamp their hearts (or squares) out!

This is really simple and fun. I gave the children a few choices for paint color and we used paper plates as our palettes. Their workstations were set up with corrugated cardboard, stickerback foam shapes, big lids from laundry detergent, forks, q-tips and 14x11 white paper.

This was all about experimenting. I gave little instruction and let the kids have fun. First we peeled the paper off our foam shapes and stuck them on the flat side of our corrugated cardboard. We painted the foam shapes and stamped them on our paper. If you don't have cardboard use what you have. I have used wood blocks, floral foam, even gluesticks as stampers.







From here we keep stamping and use some of our other supplies to fill our page. We like to paint the cardboard too as it leaves us with cool stripes!



Laundry detergent lids are great for little hands. Stamp, stamp, stamp...





When one paper was full I replaced it with a new one. We had a great time creating a bright piece of artwork all while learning about shapes!

You will need:
-Heavy white paper
-Tempera paints
-Sticker back foam shapes
-Corrugated cardboard
-Paintbrushes
-Detergent lids
-Fork
-Q-tips
-Paper plate

So much fun! If you create this project feel free to share a photo of your finished piece with me on Facebook! Have a creative day!

Painted Paper Lanterns

Children ages 3-5 made these beautiful painted lanterns with me at the OKCMOA. We gathered together to take a look at the George Nelson exhibit and read a book under his bubble lamps.

In the classroom we used his lamps as an inspiration and took our paper lanterns a step further by covering them with watercolors.

Paper lanterns are pretty economical and can be purchased online or found in craft stores in a variety of shapes.



Workstations are set up with newsprint, watercolors, brushes, paper towels and washbowls.



Before we paint we talk about painting gently. I have each of the children use their brush without paint on the back of their hand to show me a gentle brushstroke. We are gentle so we don't break through the paper.

I removed the black and brown paint from their options and we get busy.



We also talk about washing our brush between changing colors. We found that sometimes the paint dripped down our lanterns and that looked really neat.





To finish we tied yarn to the top and they were ready to take home to hang up! We had so much fun.

You will need:
-Paper Lantern
-Watercolors
-Brushes

Tick Tock

Toddlers ages 15-36 months explored architecture and clocks in the George Nelson exhibit at the OKCMOA. A cukoo style clock was the perfect way to tie these two things together. First as architects we constructed a house to hold our bird.



Cardstock was the paper choice and a house was cut with two small doors to open.





We color a small bird and glue a feather to the end. We use an accordian type fold to give our bird pop out action. Glue the bird on the folded paper inside the doors.





Now we Design our clock. Cut a circle and two hands. Use a brad and stick through hands and center of circle. Glue down.

We cut more shapes from scrap paper and glued them down. We finished with Crayola Construction Paper Crayons and added final details. We had a lot of fun and here are some of the creations.

You will need:
-Black tagboard
-Cardstock
-Scissors
-Feathers
-Glue stick
-Contruction paper crayons