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!

A Pair of Socks

I was invited by Polly over at Helping Little Hands to participate in a read along she is doing on her blog.

I chose to create a project based on the book, A Pair of Socks by Stuart J. Murphy and illustrated by Lois Ehlert.
We could have approached this by coloring or painting but I chose to use collage like Ehlert. This is a great book for learning about shapes and matching. It is great for opening dialogue and discussion between parent and child. We focused on how to make something look the same by using color and pattern.

My boys had fun with this. First we cut socks. The boys each cut four of the same color. I had them make two pairs so we could make a game of it.

We learned how to make two shapes the same. We could use two pieces of paper stacked together and cut once creating two shapes at the same time. We also discovered you can cut out one shape then trace that shape and cut out a second or third and so on. My seven year old preferred cutting once using stacked paper while my five year old preferred the tracing method.



Now we glue our shapes on our socks. The easy way to get toes and heels is to trace the rounded part of our sock on the color of paper we want and cut it out.



Hanging edges? No problem. Just trim them up!



Here are the socks my five year old made.



Here are the socks my seven year old made. He thought his were very tricky because they were so similar.



Here is the last page of the book.



And here are all of our socks! We played several games of matching as we all took turns mixing them up. Thank you Polly! This was fun!



You will need:
-Cardstock
-Scissors
-Gluestick

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

Winter Villages

I can't believe I have not posted since Thanksgiving. I have been so busy and have quite a few projects to share with you this week.

This little collage project is a lot of fun and I know you will enjoy making it. I had a wonderful opportunity this past week that I really enjoyed. Allied Arts brought me on board for a really fun pay it forward type of project. I got to go into a few OKC schools and hand out art sets, talk about being an artist and teach art projects to 1st, 3rd and 5th graders at a few different schools.

They were so excited to have their very own art set to take home and experiment with. These kids made a big impact on me. I saw so much creativity and talent. It was a lot of fun!

So, back to this little winter scene...

This project was done by 1st graders. Each child was given a 12x12 black piece of cardstock and a 12x9 piece of white cardstock. (The white piece has to be a bit smaller so after the pieces are cut, a gap will be left to make the street.) A pile of scrap paper in different colors was set in the middle of the tables. To start I asked the children to hold up their white paper "the long way." This is important because the wavy line that makes the road needed to be cut "the long way." I told the children to make one long cut across their paper. This cut could be wavy or whatever!

After the road was created by cutting and gluing the white paper, the real magic happened. I gave little instruction. I told them to cut shapes to create a winter village. Houses could be squares, rectangles...roofs could be triangles etc. We discussed the elements on a house; doors, windows, chimneys etc.

At this point I set them free and wow. They created some really amazing things!

You will need:

-Black cardstock
-White cardstock
-Colored cardstock
-Glue sticks
-Scissors
-Foam snowflake stickers optional