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

More Nelson Clocks!

I would share more, but today I only wrote directions on my Facebook page. I did this mainly because I was so busy yesterday that I only took a few lousy iPhone photos.

I did this project with HUNDREDS of children at OKCMOA's Family Day yesterday and it was a hit!

Find me on Facebook! I'd love to see you there!

Tick Tock!

Tick. Tock. Look, a clock! Children ages 3-5 joined me at the OKCMOA to create wonderful paper collage clocks inspired by George Nelson from the exhibition, George Nelson: Architect, Writer, Designer, Teacher.

The exhibition includes many wonderful things but we concentrated on his clocks.



In the gallery we read a book, Hickory Dickory Dock by Keith Baker. Taking a closer look at the Nelson clocks we notice many shapes. I ask the children to look very closely and tell me if they think anything is missing from his clocks. Immediate answer, Numbers! Correct. The Nelson clocks do not have numbers. We tell time by hand position and that is something the clocks have in common. Hands. Many of the clocks have "spokes" radiating from a center shape, commonly a circle. (to better explain radiating, we talk about sunrays, spokes on a tire, etc.) These are all things we think about as we head back to the classroom.



Everyone starts with a 16x14 piece of tagboard. This is our background. Now the children get to choose a color for the back of their clock from a stack of 12x12 cardstock. From this piece they cut out a large shape of their choice. We glue it down.

Now everyone has colored scrap papers, a black circle, pre-cut white strips, scissors, glue sticks, crayons and a metal brad.

We can use the black circle for the center of our clock or use it as a template to cut a circle from one of our scrap pieces of paper.

We cut two clock hands from scrap and attach them to the center of our circles with our brad. On the backside of our circle we arrange our spokes, or white strips and glue them down. We can now glue this piece to the center of our clock.



From here we cut shapes to put at the end of our spokes.



We also use Crayola Construction Paper Crayons to color or add details if we want.

Bright, beautiful Nelson inspired clocks!

You will need:
-Black tagboard or cardstock
-Colored cardstock or construction paper
-Scissors
-Glue stick
-Metal Brad
-Crayons optional