Painting with Jars

Today we tried a new medium to paint with.....Jars!  My kids loved it.  I like to challenge the kids by putting out unusual items to paint with.  We have used rocks, jelly beans, Lego's, and ice.  It allows the children to use their problem solving skills, imagination, fine motor and many other benefits. 

 

this jar had ridges on the bottom and the kids figured out that if

they dragged the jar it would make this print

 

I just love how these jar paintings came out. 

*As always, when children are using anything breakable, close supervision is required. 







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Golf Ball Paintings

This is a different version of the tried and true "marble painting".  We used golf balls.  The kids had a "ball"!  We used a deep tub, placed a piece of paper in, let the kids squirt in their colors, toss in the balls and roll away!  Great for cause and effect, problem solving, color mixing, creativity and large motor coordinations

 

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Beans and Tractors

This little man loves his tractors, and backhoes, and bulldozers and whatever big machinery you can think of.  He is always looking for things to load into his play trucks. I grabbed some beans that I keep just for play (cost about $2 dollars at the grocery store) and poured them into a pan for him.  He has played with this for days on end.  Loading, dumping, pushing. using his fine motor skills, problem solving, learning cause and effect, involving all his senses.  Who knew a bag of beans and some toy tractors could be educational.  It may look like he is only "playing" but he is learning, with every push, dump and scoop.  By the way, this little man is almost 2, in case you were wondering.  My almost 6 year old had almost as fun as the 2 year old. 

 

 

I store my "play" beans in recycled Gatorade bottles.  This is how I store my other items such as colored rice and pasta, aquarium rocks and whatever else we use in our sensory tubs.  It is easy to see what is in them and they line up nicely on the shelf.  You can also just let the kids play with the full bottles, with the lids tightly on. 

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Water Wall and Ice Balls

I have seen lots of water walls around like this ONE from Play Based Learning or this ONE from Teach Preschool, (both amazing and inspiring websites).  I have been wanting to try it but wasn't sure how to execute it on our wooden fence.  While cleaning out the shed, I found a box of storage containers and decided it was the perfect time to try it.  I used little nails and hammered the plastic containers to our fence.  Then I filled our table with water, although you can use whatever you have, of course.  I had made these giant ice balls (just fill a balloon with water and add a few drops of color), and was planning on using them in the sand box, but put them in the water instead.  It was huge hit with my son and a great way to cool off on a hot day!

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Abstract Toddler Art

I set this up this activity for my littles (18 months) the other day. We have lots of scrap paper and I can't seem to throw it away, figuring we could use it for something.  My littles love tearing paper (which is an excellent way to strengthen those little hand muscles) so, I taped sticky paper to our easel, sticky side up, and the littles tore and stuck paper until their little hearts were content.  I kept this up all morning and one little girl stayed with it the whole time.  Sticking, tearing and removing paper.  So great for fine motor, color recognition, cause and effect, hand/eye coordination, sensory, problem solving and creativity....just to name a few!  



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Drawing Robot

I was totally in awe and inspired when I saw these "ART BOTS" over on Teacher Tom's blog.  Oh my robot goodness.  We did ours a little differently than his, you should definitely see how he made his for the kids in his school. 

My son is a total tinker/builder/creator so we had an Erector Set with a motor in it. We simply taped the motor onto the top of a plastic cup and taped markers to the sides of the cup.  I covered our kid table with paper and taped it down.  Then we set the robot on the table and turned it on.  It was so cool!  My son was thrilled!  There really isn't much for the kids to do once it is set loose on the table, but we had fun predicting what shapes and patterns it would create and if we moved it what would happen.  It was a great experiment!  We will be doing this often!

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Robots using Recyclables

If you have been following me for awhile now, you know that my son LOVES to build and create.  Mostly he loves Lego's, but anything he can create and build with is right up his alley.  He asked if I would help him build a robot.  So we looked in our supply of recyclables for what he thought he might need.  This is what he chose;

- plastic lids

- tin cans of various sizes

- plastic bottles

- cardboard tubes

We got out the glue gun and began construction.  He began to get frustrated when his robot would not stand up (it was top heavy).  I suggested we add something heavier to the bottom of it.  He thought about it for a minute and then ran outside to get a couple rocks.  He stuck these in the bottom cans. He then named him Rock Robot and wrote that on the arms.  

I just smile looking at these cute robots. 

My kids worked so hard and did all their own construction and hot gluing. It took a lot of problem solving and truly enjoyed watching them come up with their solutions.

These were so fun to create.  I highly suggest you give it a try.

our supplies

Hot Gluing

learning about balance

language, writing, letters recognition, small motor

Rock Robot

 



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Cake Mix Playdough

I got this fabulous recipe from Lisa Murphy's Ooey Gooey Tooey book.   You will need:

1 box of cake mix (any type will do)

2 cups of flour

1 1/2 cups of salt

6 tsp of cream of tartar

6 tbls oil

3 cups of water

Mix it all in a bowl (we used an electric mixer).  Then pour into a pot and cook on medium heat until the dough begins to form a ball.  Plop it on the counter and let it cool.  Knead until it is soft and pliable. This play dough, if kept in an airtight container) will last for weeks.  It is so fun and smells incredible.

 

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Balls + Hair Dryers = Physics

So, I had the hair dryers out for something completely different.  This is what happened.

Seriously, my kids kept at this for the better portion of an hour!  They tried various balls, two at a time, small, big, heavy, light.  It was so exciting to see the results of their different "air" experiments.  Oh and the language!!  Gravity, inertia, velocity!  Oh my language!  It was really great!  I am always amazed at what can be taught with the most simple items. 

You will need some balls (light weight, plastic ones work the best) and a hair dryer. 

Blow away!

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Flyswatter Painting (minus the paint)

We love painting (well, whacking) with flyswatters.  I love doing this activity outside, well because, it's MESSY!  I don't care about messes usually, they clean up, the memories that we create last forever!  However, cleaning paint off my floors and cabinets takes time away from playing with my kids.  Sooooo, we did flyswatter painting with WATER!  It was a lot of fun too.  We still had the satisfaction of whacking,  splattering and making prints, yet virtually no cleanup.  We loved talking about evaporation and absorption AND we we able to swat all we wanted because our work kept disappearing! 

All you need is some big paper, fly swatter and a shallow pan of water.  I used a cookie sheet with just enough water to get the swatter wet. 

 Have at it kids!

 

 

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Silly Bands DIY Puzzles

We have tons of these Silly Bands. Since my kids don't really wear them, I am always looking for ways to use them.  We have stuck them to sticky paper and extracted them from ice (click on the underlined words to see how).  Today I thought we could use them to make puzzles.  My two love puzzles and puzzles are great for problem solving, using math/matching skills and using our fine motor skills.  So, we took our silly bands, put them on the copier, made a copy, then matched our silly bands to the shape on the paper.  So easy peasy and my kids loved making their own.  Lots of options too!

 

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