1) Chalk Painting Crush chalk with hammer between sheets of wax paper (OR use a cheese grater). Shake into muffin tins. Dip Q-tips into water then powdered chalk & draw. Dry pictures completly. Variations: Work on paper that has been pre-moistened with water. Use buttermilk, or a mixture of liquid starch & canned milk. 2) Painting on Foil Cut large rectangles of tagboard & cover with aluminum foil. Mix paint in glue to a thick consistency. Have kids paint with glue on the foil, leave some unpainted so foil will reflect. (can etch design in glue with popsicle stick being sure not to cut foil.) 3) Fall Colors Glue torn brown construction paper onto large sheet of finger paint paper to resemble the rough trunk & branches of a tree. Randimaly drop spoonfuls of liquid tempera onto the paper. Cover the paper with a large sheet of wax paper then press & rub the paint. Allow paint to dry completly then peel away the wax paper. Cut around the shape to make a tree. 4) Paint and Colour- Finger Paint Paint shirts, Liquid starch, Powdered tempera , Painting surface such as fingerpaint paper, butcher paper, paper sacks, cardboard, formica table top, cookie sheets or oilcloth Procedure: Put about a T. liquid starch in middle of each child's paper. Add about a t. of powdered paint to the starch. If you like, sprinkle salt or sawdust onto the fingerpaint for a different texture. Let the children use different tools such as, small pieces of cardboard, old combs popsicle sticks, cotton swabs or forks. Let the children stand while fingerpainting. This allows for greater freedom of movement and helps with rhythm and coordination. Instead of painting on the paper use the table and let the children smear the paint on the table then place paper on top of their design and peel off they will love their creation 5) Bubble Pictures White Paper Water Liquid Dish Soap Food Coloring Straw Put a little water in a plastic cup. Squeeze in some liquid dish soap and two or three drops of food coloring. It can be any color you like. Put a plastic straw in the cup and BLOW!!! If you press a piece of white paper on top of the cup very quickly before the bubbles pop you can print a picture of them. 6) Paper Chains Colored construction paper strips looped and glued or stapled together. You could also decorate the strips before putting them together (markers, paints, glitter, stamps). 7) Paints with Sponges I bought a bunch of sponges and cut them into shapes like triangles butterflies etc. and the kids dipped them into paint and pressed them onto the paper. 8) Shred and tear up colored paper and ribbon (what little kid doesn't love doing that) and paper punch some too. Get a small clear acrylic frame from Target/KMart and press the paper scraps between the frame and the cardboard backing. Everyone's is different and can be changed for another look. 10) VEGETABLE PRINTING Spoon powdered paint onto cotton balls in a saucer. Wet slightly. Cut potatoes, carrots, onions, green pepper or ??? in 1/2 inch sizes, or cut into designs! OR use odds & ends from the junk drawer - combs, corks, paper clips, spools, bottle lids, steel wool, felt pieces, old earrings, etc. 11) Marblized Chalk Shallow pan like a cake pan enough water to fill the pan colored sidewalk chalk butter knife construction paper Pour water in pan. Scrape chalk and cover top of the water. Mix different colors. Makes neat pictures. Place the construction paper on top of water making sure you dont push paper under the water. The chalk will stick to the paper. Remove paper from pan and let dry. 12) COFFEE FILTER ART Fold a coffee filter in half, then in half again, and half again, and one more time. If desired, make little cutouts on the folded side. With a marker bottle, eyedropper or watercolor brush, place colors in a row on the coffee filter. Unfold and place on a sheet of construction paper. Place another sheet on top of the filter and rub your hand across to get two great prints. After unfolding the coffee filter, the drying time is just minutes. Three projects in one! Because the coffee filter is so absorbent the colors will bleed together. A great way to teach secondary colors! Prints can be used for original greeting cards. And, after drying, you may laminate the filter for stained glass effects. 13) SPRAY ART Fill a spray bottle with full-strength Liquid Watercolor. Place a stencil on a sheet of paper and spray. You may also use spray on a butcher roll or a large sheet of paper on an easel. 14) FOAM PAINT Add Liquid Watercolor to shaving cream in a paint cup or mixing bowl. Add as little or as much Liquid Watercolor you need to achieve your desired color. Use foam with a brush, a craft stick or your fingers. Our liquid watercolor washes clean with just soap and water. 15) COLORED SALT (GLITTER) Add 1 tbsp. Liquid Watercolor to a quarter cup of regular table salt. Spread out on paper towels and microwave for 2 minutes.Using fingers, break up the dried pieces. The Liquid Watercolor dries to a beautiful, vibrant colored glitter. Great for young ones, because it's so easy... and SAFE! (Does not work with Gold, Silver, or White.) 16) In a small bowl, combine 1 cup white flour, 1 cup salt, and 1 cup water. Add 2 teaspoons of tempera paint and stir. Pour into a plastic squeeze bottle. The children can make designs by squeezing the paint onto paper. When the paint dries, it will puff up. 17) On a rainy day, sprinkle a few drops of different shades of food coloring on a paper plate. Encourage the children to walk outdoors in the rain with the plate for about a minute. The colors will swirl and splash into a beautiful design. 18) Light up pictures Q-tips, tempera paint, manilla paper, salad oil Provide Q-tips and small amounts of tempera paint in small containers. Let the children use the Q-tips to paint designs on manilla paper. After the paint is dry, let the children use a paint brush to quickly spread the oil over the entire picture. Light will show through and light up the picture when it is hung in a window. 19) Buddy Paintings I cover a table with mural paper, put out tempera paint and brushes and 3 children come together at a time and paint together on the mural paper. They can paint--- however, wherever and whatever they want to on the mural paper....the only thing is they must do it with 2 other "buddies." Some children will paint representationally-- many will not this early in the year. Some "buddies" will each paint their own section on the mural paper and leave them distinct and seperate. Some "buddies" will stretch their paintings to reach and overlap each other so that the entire paper is filled. Some "buddies" will paint quickly and be off, while others will take a long time and stay very focused. As you step back and observe as their teacher this activity will tell you much about the "new" children you have in your room. While they are painting I document their work and take pictures of the "buddies" working together. I also ask each child to write their name on a rectangular piece of oak tag. When the paintings are dry and the pictures developed I hang them all around our room. I tape their written names to the paintings and place the pictures around the edge. The parents love to see these when they come in for parents night a few weeks later. At the end of the year I place these pictures in their memory books....it's often interesting to find that many chidren who first painted together later became close friends!! 20) Record Player Art We put paper plates on a record player, we set ours on 78 speed (fast) and then turn them on. Then the child gets to usemarkers or crayons to decorate. They just hold them on the plate and they make cool designs. Once the children get comfortable with the idea of doing this they start to create really neat designs. 21) Fall Leaf Mobiles Cut a 1 inch strip of cardboard & tape into a circle. Punch 6 holes in the strip & have kids collect 6 colorful leaves. Press them between pieces of wax paper. Punch a hole in the wax paper & tie each with a different length of string to the circular mobile. 22) Glycerin Leaves Place a small branch with fall leaves on several layers of newspapers. With a hammer tap the end of the stem until it is slightly crushed, Place branch in a jar with one part glycerine to two parts water. Keep for 2 weeks. Leaves will be thicker to touch, colors will have changed & they will not disintergrate or fade. 23) LUNCH BAG KITES MATERIALS: ONE MEDIUM-SIZED LUNCH BAG FOR EACH CHILD RULER CRAYONS OR COLORED MARKERS STRING ( I RECOMMEND NYLON CORD FOUND IN FISHING DEPT.) SCISSORS STAPLER STEPS: 1. ON EACH LUNCH BAG, MEASURE AND MARK A POINT 3" FROM THE TOP. FOLD DOWN THE TOP OF THE BAG TO THAT POINT WITHOUT TEARING THE CORNERS. 2. HAVE THE CHILDREN DECORATE THEIR PAPER BAGS WITH PATTERNS OR PICTURES. THEY SHOULD COLOR ALL SIDES OF THE BAG, INCLUDING THE BOTTOM. 3. MEASURE AND CUT FOUR 6" LENGTHS OF STRING FOR EACH KITE. STAPLE FOUR PIECES OF STRING TO THE CORNERS OF EACH PAPER BAG AT THE OPEN END. TIE THE FREE ENDS OF THE FOUR PIECES OF STRING TOGETHER. 4. MEASURE AND CUT A 6' LENGTH OF STRING FOR EACH PAPER BAG KITE. TIE ONE END OF THE 6' LENGTH OF STRING TO THE KNOTTED END OF EACH GROUP OF FOUR STRINGS. 5. YOUR KITE IS NOW READY FOR FLIGHT. 24) PAPER PLATE KITES MATERIALS: ONE 9" PAPER PLATE FOR EACH CHILD CRAYONS OR COLORED MARKERS TRANSPARENT TAPE TWO PLASTIC STRAWS FOR EACH CHILD HOLE PUNCHER STRING (SEE RECOMMENDATION ABOVE) RULER SCISSORS OPTIONAL: CREPE PAPER STREAMERS STAPLER STEPS: 1. HAVE THE CHILDREN DECORATE BOTH SIDES OF THEIR PAPER PLATES. IF YOU WISH STAPLE FOUR 8" CREPE PAPER STREAMERS TO EACH PAPER PLATE, SPACED EQUALLY AROUND THE EDGE. 2. USE TRANSPARENT TAPE TO ATTACH TWO STRAWS TO THE BACK OF EACH PAPER PLATE. THE STRAWS SHOULD BE ABOUT 3" APART. 3. PUNCH FOUR HOLES ABOUT 1" FROM THE RIM OF EACH PAPER PLATE, SPACING THEM EQUALLY. 4. MEASURE AND CUT FOUR 18" LENGTHS OF STRING FOR EACH PAPER PLATE. PUSH THE END OF ONE PIECE OF STRING THROUGH EACH HOLE AND TIE IT SECURELY AROUND THE EDGE OF THE PLATES. THEN TIE THE FREE ENDS OF ALL FOUR PIECES OF STRING TOGETHER AT THE FRONT OF THE PLATE. 5. MEASURE AND CUT ONE 6' LENGTH OF STRING FOR EACH PAPER PLATE KITE. TIE ONE END OF THE 6' LENGTH OF STRING TO THE KNOTTED END OF EACH GROUP OF FOUR STRINGS. YOUR KITE IS NOW READY FOR FLIGHT. 25) Paper Plate Frog Materials needed: 9 inch paper plate green construction paper (or white paper if colored green) glue green and black crayon Color paper plate green. Cut out frog legs - imagine the letter L, only make it a little puffier, kinda like you used to draw "bubble letters" when you were a teenager. Color the legs green if you used white paper instead of construction paper. Cut out legs. Draw a few misshaped black circles on the legs. Cut out 2 oval shapes from green construction paper, or color white ovals. Color a black circle at one end of the oval. These are the frogs eyes. Glue eyes onto plate, and glue legs onto plate. (cut out legs should be about 4 inches long, and 4 inches across. Make sure about 2 inches of the leg is glued onto plate. Glued legs should face this way on plate: __| |__ Draw a mouth on the frog like this: //\/\/\/\/\/\/\ You now have a frog! 26) Popsicle Stick Idea The children can make them into a frame, we do this one alot. Decorate with sequins and fake gems and foam pices, feathers and pasta shapes or whatever you may have. 27) Popsicle Stick Puppets They can glue craft hair and jiggle eyes on the sticks and cut out clothes out of construction paper and glue on. Another idea, color a picture of something (dino, shark, bird ) and glue stick to back for puppet, maybe make a story to go with them. Make a flower either color one or cut one out of construction paper and glue to stick and glue leaves to bottom. 28) Popsicle Stick Puzzles Line up several popsicle sticks and tape them together. They write their name on each stick, turn them over, and draw a picture. When the picture is complete, they remove the tape, mix up the sticks, and have a puzzle! They really enjoy exchanging puzzles with their friends. 29) Popsicle Stick House Take a med. size paper cup. Kids glue the craft sticks, vertically, all around the cup. This takes thick, thick "tacky" glue or good quality paste (like when WE were kids!). It also takes patience. Use a thumb tack to puncture a couple of holes in the bottom of the cup for drainage holes. Next, "Paint the Fence" with white tempera. When dry, add dirt and grass seeds. Keep in a sunny place, gently sprinkle with water every single day. As the grass grows tall enough to be seen over the fence, add a house this way: give the children a SIMPLE outline of a house. make the size of this house proportionate to the "Lawn" and "Fence". Let the kids color and embelish the house. Protect the house with contact paper- because the "lawn" will still need to be watered. Affix the house to a taller craft stick- or make an extended craft stick by gluing together two regualr sticks. And then push the house's stick into the dirt, so the house sits at the right height. BUT THE HEIGHT OF YOUR TALL?EXTENDED STICK needs to be predetermined by you before hand. Ultimately, you want the house to be on the grass, surrounded by a fence. As the grass grows, the child needs to "mow" it with scissors. /\ / \ / \ house | | | | 1111111 grass /\/\/\/\/\ |||||||||| fence (craft sticks) |||||||||| >>