Winter Blues

Don't be blue! I think this is the perfect time to post this project I did with toddlers ages 15-36 months last week at the OKCMOA. I don't know about you my friends but we are snowed in! I am determined not to let cabin fever bring us down and hopefully this little project will chase the blues away for you and your toddler.

We discovered the color blue in the galleries, taking a closer look at painterly abstraction pieces as well as minimalist works by Anne Truitt.

In the classroom we got busy with blue!





We began by rolling dark blue on our papers with brayers. You can buy inexpensive foam rollers at your local craft store. I recommend having some on hand!

Then we used a big feather to add light metallic blue.



We finished with white. I put snowflake foam stickers on floral blocks to create our own stamps.







They turned out quite nice and would look great under a nice white mat and framed to hang in your home all winter long.

You will need:
-Student grade watercolor paper
-Brayers
-Tempera paints: Dark blue, light blue (metallic if you can find it) and white
-Feathers
-Foam stickers for stamping

Yikes! Stripes!

Children ages 3-5 helped me explore the OKCMOA to find stripes. First we talked about lines. Lines are all around us. Then we took a look at a few books to find stripes. Simply put for them, stripes are lines that are next to each other.

The class is only an hour so we had to get busy. Each child had a paper plate palette with several colors of tempera paints to choose from. I supplied q-tips, one for each color. Q-tips work great for some projects because they are quick and disposable. If we had to wash a brush between all the colors it would have taken forever.



We paint horizontal stripes with our paper set horizontal. I encourage the children not to mix colors at this point, but to put the colors in any order using whatever colors they want.


This child only used two colors. He was proud that he was making a pattern.

We left our painting to dry while we left the classroom to explore the galleries. We viewed several works taking a closer look at pieces by Frank Stella and Gene Davis.

We played a game of I Spy and went back to the classroom to create a new piece using our original painting.



Here we cut our paintings into more, you got it, stripes! We use glue sticks to put our strips of paper on black tag board leaving space between each strip in order to create yet another stripe. I tell them they can lay the cut strips of paper down in whatever order they wish. Some left them in the same order as they were cut and others turned pieces around and mixed it up.







Great use of fine motor skills today for these kids!

So much fun!

You will need:
-Student grade watercolor paper
-Tempera paints
-Palette and q-tips or brushes
-Black tag board several inches wider than size of watercolor paper
-Glue sticks
-Scissors









p.s. I have some pretty exciting news to share with you soon!

1,2,3 Paint with me

Happy Birthday Jasper Johns!

One of the most important American artists of this century, we celebrate you today! This morning at the OKCMOA a great group of kids ages 3-5 joined me for an exciting artistic journey through paint and collage to celebrate Jasper Johns.

To begin I shared a little bit about Johns and we looked at examples from a few books. We created our own version of his numbers series and they turned out FANTASTIC.



We began at our first workstation. I had 11x14 paper set out along with newspaper scraps, glue sticks, paintbrushes, q-tips and paint palette.



To give us texture like Jasper Johns we used newspaper scraps. Rub your glue stick on your paper and apply newspaper randomly.





Then we used our cool color palette and covered our paper.







We moved to a second workstation to paint our numbers. I precut the numbers 1, 2 and 3 and laid them out on newspaper. Here we used warm paint palette plus white and used paint brushes and q-tips.











Then we glued our numbers on top to finish our masterpiece! While our pieces were drying we gathered beneath the glow of a Chihuly chandelier to read Chicka Chicka 123 by Lois Ehlert. It is a wonderful book all about numbers. We visited the galleries and returned to the class to pick clean our workspace and collect our artwork.

Close up of the newspaper under the paint.




You will need:
-11x14 student grade watercolor paper
-newspaper scraps plus newspaper to catch mess
-scrap white paper pre-cut into numbers
-green, blue, red, yellow, orange and white tempera paint
-brushes
-q-tips

Here are a few of our finished works!

Texture Tots

This class for toddlers ages 15-36 months was all about texture. To begin we gathered in a circle and read a book filled with objects to touch. Then I had several objects out for the children to hold (cotton balls, satin, foil, marbles, rocks, sponges, etc). We talked about how these objects felt and used descriptive words to label them.



We visited the gallery and returned to the classroom to create paintings with lots of lumps and bumps. I mixed tempera paints with sand and a little bit of cornstarch to thicken it up. What fun we had! This is a great sensory building technique that is a bit different than plain old finger paints.

We used craft sticks, combs, and forks to drag through our paint to give us extra texture! Fingers work great too!



For this hands on fun you will need:
-canvas paper to stand up to the weight of paint
-paint
-sand or cornstarch
-craft sticks and/or other objects to apply paint

Here are some of our works.

Go van Gogh

Happy Birthday Vincent van Gogh! You crazy Dutch post-impressionist! You were a pioneer for the modern art movement and you had no idea how your works of art would be enjoyed for so many years to come!

Although van Gogh was known for his use of vibrant colors, in this toddler class I decided to go pastel for Easter bunny fun. These works are in celebration of van Gogh, not representational of his work. It was a lot of fun for the kids.

We talked a little about van Gogh and read a fun book, Trucks Go. This book is filled with fun sound effects that all the kids enjoyed.
We discussed our museum manners and were off to visit the galleries. Back in the classroom we used things that "go" to cover our paper!

First we used brayers. This just doesn't get old. Kids love rolling paint! Then I had a bucket of cars, trucks and more to roll through paint and on to our paper. Find some wheels with different track marks. That means more fun.



Pick some different colors and let loose!

Wouldn't these be fun cut out as easter eggs? yes!



You will need:
-paper. Heavier is best for the little ones as they will roll through thin paper.
-tape to make the paper stay put for the rolling frenzy
-paint whatever colors you have
-things that "GO!"

Here are some of our works. Start your engines! VROOM!