1) Wavy Pictures Take a picture from an old calander or magazine and a piece of paper, about a couple of inches bigger all round, to mount it on. Cut the picture into wavy strips. Glue onto the mounting paper leaving a small gap between each strip. This gives a "stripey" effect which looks really good. You can cut horizontally, vertically or at an angle. 2) A display that I Have up: Large sheets of white paper (for background). Have children splatter paint (shake the paintbrush over the paper) with light blue paint to make raindrops. (This is the backdrop). Cut paper plates in half with a scalloped edge, let children decorate any way you want, I used "Do-A-Dot" markers, add a "J" handle. Cut yellow paper in duck shapes and have children glue on yellow feathers and a wiggle eye. You can also add rubber boots! The ducks can be displayed "holding" the umbrellas. Have children step in brown paint with bare feet to make Muddy Foot Prints on green paper. (This goes on the bottom of the display) At the top I made a sun that was half covered by a cloud, and a rainbow out of crepe paper streamers! Look's Great!!! 3) I call it spoon pins. Mix up some plaster of paris. Pour it into the bowl-part of a plastic spoon and let harden. Make sure it is even across the top. Hot glue on a craft pin after it is hardened (or stick it directly in the plaster of paris when it's about half way hardened). After it's completely dry, pop it out of the spoon. It can then be painted or colored with markers. This is a great idea for Mother's day. 4) Open Ended Art Idea I did a cool open ended art idea on wed. I taped paper under all my tables and had the children color what ever they wanted. Not only did they have fun coloring upside down.... they helped the other children fill in all the spaces. 5) PAINT WITH WATER! Save gallon clorox jugs and cut one half of the top off leaving the handle. This makes a great pail with a handle. Save enough jugs for all the children and the teachers to have one. Give everyone a bucket and a large, cheap paintbrush (ask for donations from parents). Go outside, fill the buckets with water, and paint everything in sight in the playground with water! The kids LOVE it and it doesn't harm anything -nothing that a little sunshine won't take care of! Another way I like to use clorox jugs is to make "catchers" with them. 6) Painting and printing on to fabric Paint directly on to cotton fabric with fabric paints. To make dolls and/or cushions, cut out a back and a front, stitch right sides together and stuff. 7) String Painting Dip string into tick paint and drop it on to one side of a folded sheet of paper. Priss the sides together firmly Open and remove the string. 8) Wax resist Draw an invisible picture in wax on white paper. Cover the whole area with thin paint and the picture will appear. 9) Blow Painting Drop blobs of runny paint on to paper and,using a straw, blow the paint into different shapes. 10) Great Cutting Box Idea A tip for a great cutting box to practice the scissor skills: Round up a medium size box, the kind that has handles on on each side at the top. Wrap yarn around the handles on each end and attach children scissors on the other end of the yarn. Fill the box with craft scraps and wrapping paper, and ribbons and such. Two children can use the box at the same time. The children can practice their cutting over the box, and the mess falls into the box. All you have to do at the end of the day is search through for the cuttings for salvegeable scraps for the next day. 11) Art Idea You get a old salad spinner/dryer that you no longer use. I picked one up from a thrift store for a dollar. You put an index card with a small amount of paint. (you can do more just put other colors along with it) and have the kids or yourself spin it and it gives them a chance to do spin art and makes a great homemade postcard or craft. You could do alot of things with a little experimenting. 12) Bean Bag Idea A great idea I came across recently was to use odd socks as bean bags. Simply fill the sock with beans or rice and tie a knot in the end. Or the end can be sewn up. 13) Bird Feeder Here is a cute and simple craft to make bird feeders. Materials: Big pipe cleaners and cheerios. Hook one end of pipecleaner and have children add cheerios until 1 inch from top. Bend pipe cleaner over cheerios so they will stay on. Match the pipe cleaner with cheerios look like a J. Hook over tree limb for birds to enjoy. 14) Cloth yo-yos My young 6's can do these and are so pleased with themselves. Just cut cotton fabric which has tiny flowers on it into circles... some of ours were 4 inches across [or slightly larger]. Thread needles [double thread] and do an "up/down" stitch all around right near the edge. Pull the thread so that the material "gathers". Flatten it and sew a button in the middle. You will have to do this. We made them for barrettes, for the corners of frames and made our mothers a pin. 15) Colorful Creative Salt Recipe Add 5-6 drops of food coloring to 1/2 cup of household salt. Cook in microwave 1-2 minutes or spread on waxed paper to let air dry. Use as you would glitter. 16) Craft For Pioneer Indian Days Take a toilet paper roll or a paper towel roll and cut it with scissors down the side so you can lay the cardboard flat. Make a few small tears along the sides. Soak the cardboard in water, then place it outside flat to dry. When dry, you draw on it with markers. It turns out best if you make many little drawings like plants or something on it, and one big drawing like a bird or something on it. Your finished product will look like old leather (wrinkled and torn a little) that was decorated a long time ago. To make a really large one, use a brown paper bag and crumble it to give it an old look. Not as impressive as the cardboard ones, but still neat looking. 17) Vegetable prints, Here's what you need, poster paint raw vegetables, such as onions, carrots corn on the cob, celery and potatoes, also mushrooms, oranges, broccoli. sharp knife, (for grownup use only) Heavy paper plate, sheet of paper Newspaper. Here's what you do. Cover table with newspaper, grownup uses knife to cut vegetables with a flat surface. Pour a thin layer of paint into a heavy paper plate. Dip the flat side of vegetable in paint. Press vegetables onto paper for vegetable prints. You can also use a plastic berry basket, cork, potato masher, and other gadgets to dip into paint for a print. 18) Rock Study Craft Here's what you need: poster paint paintbrush container of water smooth flat rocks newspaper Here's what you do: Cover table with newspaper Use poster paint to paint things such as faces, animals, flowers, and designs onto the rocks. Allow to dry completely. Brush clear nail polish on painted rocks to make them shine. Glue things such as yarn, pipe cleaners, and dried beans onto painted rocks for hair, whiskers, and eyes of faces an animals, Spiders look awsome. 19) Swinging Monkey (construction paper, chenille stick, plastic drinking straw) 1. Draw and cut out circles from construction paper. Glue these together to make the monkey. 2. Staple pieces of chenille sticks to the monkey for the arms and the legs. 3. Wrap the ends of the arms around a plastic drinking straw. 4. Hold the straw in your hand, and swing the monkey around the straw. 20) FALL PLACEMATS 1. Do this project at the sink or over the tub. Under the faucet, wet one side of a large sheet of white construction paper. 2. With large brushes, drop yellow, green, and red poster paint or tempera paint here and there onto the wet paper. 3. Tilt the paper back and forth, keeping it over the sink or tub, until the colors have run across the paper. (If the paint is too dry to run, sprinkle more water over the paper.) Set it aside to dry. 4. Trace around leaves (or draw your own leaf shapes) onto a black sheet of paper the same size as the white paper. Carefully poke your scissors into each leaf shape and cut it out. 5. Glue the black paper over the painted paper to see the autumn leaves. You can cover the finished place mat with clear self-adhesive paper or plastic wrap. 21) EGG CARTON CROWN (Another alternative to making king crowns for the letter K) 1. Cut the lid from a cardboard egg carton and discard it. 2. Cut the carton lengthwise through the six egg cups on one side of the carton, and discard the narrower strip. Repeat with the other side. 3. Draw a line lengthwise down the middle of the remaining piece. About 1 inch from one end of this piece, carefully poke your scissors through the carton. Cut down the line, stopping about 1 inch from the other end. 4. Open out the sides of the carton to form a crown. Try it on. If the crown is too small, cut 1/2 inch more toward each end along the pencil line. 5. Decorate the crown with paint, sequins, paper, or glitter. 22) NAME WALL HANGINGS (would be good for the first of the year--learning new names) 1. Draw circles on a piece of poster board or thin cardboard by tracing around the rim of a plastic drinking cup. Make as many circles as there are letters in your first name. 2. Cut out the circles. 3. Use crayon or marker to write each letter of your name on a circle and to decorate it. 4. Punch holes in the top and bottom of each circle except the last one. Punch a hole in the top of that circle but not in the bottom. 5. To make a hanger, tie a loop in one end of a long piece of ribbon or yarn. Then run the rest of the ribbon or yarn piece through the holes in each circle, one at a time, taping it to the back of each circle as you go. 23) Aluminum Foil Leaves Materials Needed: pieces of aluminum foil leaves glue construction paper Set out pieces of aluminum foil and a variety of fall leaves. Let each child select a leaf, place it under a piece of foil, and gently press and rub the foil with his or her hand to get a leaf print. Then have the children glue their leaf prints to the construction paper. This is a great art project but it also can be a science project. They can see the veins and stems and this can start a really great discussion. 24) Leaf Prints Materials Needed: newspaper leaves tempra paint (red, orange, yellow) paintbrushes black construction paper. Have the children select one or two leaves and place them on a piece of newspaper. Let them paint their leaves red, yellow and orange. Then help each child place a sheet of black construction paper over the painted leaves and gently press down to make a print. You can keep doing this until you put as many leaves on the black paper as the child wants to fill up the page. The kids really enjoy doing this one and so does the teacher. I always make one for myself. 25) Stone Soup For stone soup I asked the children to each bring in a vegetable. I had some extras at school. We scrubbed them in the water table with vegetable scrubbers. Then the children cut them up and put them in the big pot with a stone that I had boiled at home earlier. It was fun to see how hot the stone got and how long it took to cool down. 26) Charcoal Crystal Gardens Arrange charcoal briquets in a bowl. Mix 6 TB salt, 6TB laundry bluing, 6TB water, and 1 TB ammonia. Spoon this mixture over the coals. Squeeze a few drops of food coloring over the mixture. Sit back and watch the crystals grow. The process will continue for few days with the color still intensifying. 27) Here is a fun cutting activity Discuss going on a trip - let a child say where he/she would like to go. Everyone can go to a favorite place. Make a "suitcase" by folding a large piece of construction paper in half. Cut any shape handles and glue on. After children do this, let them cut [from magazines or catalogs] items to go in the suitcases. Glue them inside. Let each dry and then discuss what and why each thing was taken on the "trip".