1) Cookie Cutter Prints Put paint into shallow pan or make a "pad" out of a paper towel in tray. Dip any cookie cutter or shape cut sponge in paint & print. 2) Stampers Can make stampers from cut-up styrofoam meat trays. Add handles on the back by simply cutting pieces from the left over tray & gluing on back. If you want a specific shape for a theam use a cookie cutter & trace it onto the foam. 3) Vegetable Printing Cut potato in half & draw desired shape into sliced section. Carve away section you do not want, leaving a raised relief. Put paint in shallow pan & have kids print. Other ideas: cut various gourds in half, lemons, limes, or carrot, etc. 4) Syrup Prints Give each child an 8 x 10 piece of wax paper on which 2 tablespoons of clear corn syrup has been placed. Let kids pick 2 colors of food coloring to drop into syrup. Roll around on wax paper till they have designed what they want. Press a sheet of paper into design. Let dry overnight. 5) Fall Leaf Prints Paint the back of a leaf with brown, yellow, orange, green, or red paint. Place the leaf paint side down on a large sheet of construction paper. Lay a sheet of newspaper atop the leaf & gently press & rub or use rolling pin. Remove newspaper & leaf to reveal print. Repeat this process several times using different colors of paint. 6) Berry Basket Painting Another great idea for printing is to get the green berry baskets that fruits such as strawberries or cherry tomatoes come in. They make gorgeous prints. Just dip in paint and you've got a masterpiece. 7) Making Crayons Something I have done that my students love is to melt down pieces of crayons in a coffee can set in boiling water. You can use a double boiler but with a coffee can you can throw it away. Start with the light colored crayons so you so not have to clean inbetween. When the crayons are melted pour them in candy molds. They pop out very easy and it is easy to clean up and reuse for candy or crayons. You can make the colors approiate to the item - brown bears, red lips etc. but they love any neat shape. Great way to handle recycling. 8) Splat Art Fill a knee-hi pantyhose about 1/4 the way with sand. Tie a knot at the top. Dip the "splatter" in paint. Allow the child to stand on a chair (with teacher help and closely supervised) and drop the "splatter" onto the big piece of paper below! Watch out though when the paint splatters...it goes ALL over, not just on the paper. Make sure you have plenty of room to do this. Maybe it would be a good outside project. (Unfortunately I found this out the hard way. My class and I did splat art with Halloween colors and I was continuing to clean up the black and orange paint way into the Christmas season!) My class really enjoy this activity! 9) Sand Jar Supplies: .Baby Food Jars .Salt .Colored Chalk .Glue You can have the kids make jars of colored "sand" using salt and colored chalk. Just spread salt on a plate or whatever and rub the color chalk of their choice all over the salt, pour into the jar, use another color. The kids like to slide toothpicks or the end of the spoon down the sides of the jar to create patterns. You will probably want to glue the lid on! 10) Sand Dough 1 cup sand 1/2 cup cornstarch 1 tsp cream of tartar 3/4 cup hot water Mix sand, cornstarch and cream of tartar in an old saucepan. Add hot water. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture is very thick and can't be stirred further. Cool slightly and mold into various shapes use plastic molds or let children create their own designs. Allow to dry. Paint if desired. (Store left overs in airtight container.) What a fun way to make permanent sand castles for your sandtable (with those new sandcastle/beach plastic pail sets). Add some plastic people figures and instant kingdom!!! 11) Sea Shell Necklace Reproduce 5 different types of seashells on paper. They could be a starfish, scallop, sand dollar, etc. Make them about 2 1/2 inches wide. Color them and cut them out. Glue them to oaktag. Take a hole punch and at the top of the shell, punch 2 holes about 1" apart. Take some yarn and string through one hole and then through the other. Push the shells close together on the yarn and tie in the back. Sticky Stuff 12) Finger paint with Karo Syrup and add food coloring to make it colorful. Add glitter. Very sticky, Very gooey and a Very different sensation! 13) Taste sticky stuff: different flavors of syrup, bubble gum, peanut butter (make peanut butter play dough), thick jello (jigglers), fruit roll-ups 14) Put out rolls of various tapes (duct tape, masking tape, scotch tape, two sided tape, removeable tape and color tapes) and let the children explore! (At Christmas time we set up a dramatic play area for gift wrapping. Usually the gifts are the toys and/or blocks...but the children sure do love the tape!!!) Add some lick and stick type stickers. 15) Velcro is another "sticky" thing... One side is "sticky" the other not....both sides are needed to stick...hum...experiment with what else will stick to the "sticky" half of the velcro set. Magnets Have several magnets types (bar, u-magnets, horseshoe, rod, ring, disc and the various shaped ceramic magnets) and metal objects available. As the children experiment with the equipment, ask them "Which magnet do you think is the strongest? Why?" Encourage the children to test their prediction/guesses by using the magnets to pick up more than one, two three, etc. objects. Continue with "Which objects will the biggest magnet pick up? Will the smallest magnet pick up the same objects?" Size is NOT always the determining factor of strength in magnets. Expand this "study" by helping the children develop a simple graph which records how many...paper clips, for example, each magnet type picks up. Further expand this study by experimenting with a magnet's force going through different materials. Paper, water, plastic dish, styrofoam meat tray, glass (careful with this one) etc. Do all the magnets work through the same materials? Let the children brainstorm ideas of uses for magnets and you (or they) make simple illustrations to represent their ideas (the written word could also be used with children who are at that level).... challenge them to fill your paper with ideas. Keep this list a growing list and allow children to add ideas throughout the day (week, whatever). To incorporate dramatic play within this unit, put out various animal/people/vehicle shaped magnets and the magnet boards for the children to explore. Magnetic numbers and letters are another resource. 16) MAGNET FINDERS In anticipation of a magnet hunt, today we made MAGNET FINDERS. Prior to class I hot-glued strips of magnetic tape to large Tongue Depressors. During class I put out water colors and very small bristle paint brushes. The children painted the side of the tongue depressor that did not have the magnet on it. They were beautiful. Perhaps I should note that we did this later in the year after they had full exposure to large motor painting at the easel and at the table. They loved working on a small area with tiny brushes because they were ready to attempt finer motor skills. 17) MAGNET FUN At the science table I set up four pans. One with magnetic marbles, one with magnetic edged bingo chips, one with paper clips, and one with washers, nuts and bolts. I also placed 4 magnetic wands next to each pan. This was an area for the children to freely explore, learn and discover. If they asked, I answered questions, but I did not direct their play. Not unexpectedly, each item did not stay in each pan. The children chose to share and extend their exploring by mixing items in each pan. That led to another great learning experience----when they were done, they had fun sorting "like items" back into the original pan. I could have started having the pans filled with mixed items and/or I could have insisted they keep the items seperate in each individual pan. Instead I chose to set up the lesson to benefit their own exploration and discovery of knowledge. 18) STICKY PAPER PICTURES We had rolls of white contac paper at our school (you could use any color). I cut large rectangle pieces of the contac paper, peeled the paper off of the contac, and hung the contac paper (sticky side up) at child height on our bulletin boards. I placed a large box of colored tissue paper squares near by. The children had fun creating sticky paper collages with the tissue paper and they were so pretty when done. They enjoyed the fact that they didn't need glue to make the tissue paper stick! I cut the contac paper to a size that was large enough to enjoy but not too overwhelming. We explored what would happen to their sticky papers if they didn't cover the entire "sticky" contac paper. Most children then chose to cover the entire contac paper with the tissue. I like this simple activity also because it gives children a new dimension to create on. They are standing up and their paper is hanging in front of them on the board. It could of course be done at a table, or you could tack it to an easel, but it creates new possiblities, new thought processes when tacked to the wall. 19) STICKY STORY This is one of my all time favorite books!!!! It is called "SPENCE MAKES CIRCLES" by Christa Chevalier Before reading the story we talk about why our tissue paper stayed on the contact paper today. (Because it was sticky). We explore ideas of how we could have made the tissue paper stick if the contact paper hadn't been sticky. Of course one idea the children come up with is to use "glue." The "Spence Makes Circles" story is about a little boy who enjoys using glue, but comes to find that glue can be "tricky". He gets it everywhere! I love this book because it explores all the problems children could have with glue and the funny ways Spence tries to become "unstuck." I also like it because Spence could end up in trouble with his mother...(how many of your mothers complain about paint on clothes, glue etc.?!) ....but instead Spence's mother laughs and simply says "Glue is tricky!!" and then gives Spence a bath.