Lumpy Bumpy Art

Yesterday I had two great toddler classes at the Museum. We learned all about texture. We started the class reading, Art by Patrick McDonnell.

Then we talked about what we thought objects might feel like when we look at them. We then felt different textured objects to see of we were right-I brought sandpaper, a sponge, marble, cotton balls, beans, plastic, foil, etc.

After that we looked at paintings and sculptures in the galleries. We used our eyes to find bumpy, smooth and all sorts of textures on our walk to the gallery, in the elevator and back to the class. Lot's of fun.


Mixing tempera paint and sand in bowls first.

Then I set up their workspace.


In the classroom we painted with a paint I thickened with sand. We used forks and toothbrushes as our special brushes for the day. The kids created lots of lumps and bumps with our special paint. Some even used their hands, enjoying the strange dirt like feeling. I ended up using an acrylic paper to withstand the weight of the paint instead of the cardboard I had originally planned on.

These are works by 15 month olds to 2 year old kids.