Funny Fish

We have new a book about counting and animals that the oldest one really likes.

The last page has 10 funny fish.

I noticed that the fish had heart shapes for the fins and lips.

It inspired this craft.

The little one has been drawing for sometime and really enjoys it.

Today I showed her, hand over hand, how to make a circle.

She picked up on it fairly quickly and we ended up with 6 fish, 4 of them were her circles.

She was excited to use the glue stick to attach the hearts.

Great focus and concentration.

Jello Rainbow Painting

I had some leftover jello powder so decided to use it at the art table

to make rainbows.

With the coloured powder I set out glue and paper.

I decided to use boxes to set the paper in to try to contain the powder somewhat.

Easy process; 

first squeeze the glue on to the paper,

then sprinkle on the powder,

finally add more if needed.

Oh and shake the box to move the powder around

till it sticks to the glue.

I did have glue spreaders available for a bit.

It was a busy table and we talked about what we observed

when the dry powder touches the wet glue.

The colours became brighter.

Some beautiful art was created.

Building a Volcano

I find it difficult to plan for after a two week break.

What will the children be interested in especially after a holiday like Christmas?

But this year several children were showing an interest in dinosaurs 

so I decided to do a little prep with the children before

our holiday started.

We made a volcano with papier mache.

If you've ever used papier mache you know that it is very sticky.

I was curious if the children would try it.

Would they be willing to stick their hands in a white, sticky mess?

Would they figure out how to dip the strip of paper to get it all wet

then move it over to the sculpture?

I remember with my own children that it took a few tries for them

to enjoy the texture and the process.

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I was thrilled to see that a fair number of children were happy to try

and we were successful in our creating.

We covered the the crumpled newspaper with strips of newspaper first.

Then a second layer of paper towel.

This will be a working volcano that has a glass bottle inside.

Finally we painted it with diluted glue

and added tissue paper for a finish.

We used a couple of shades of brown 

which I think turned out really well.

This took us two days then it had two weeks to dry completely.

This morning was our first day back from holidays.

 I added rocks, trees and dinosaurs for the children to discover.

I also moved one of the sensory tables beside it which holds sand.

I'm curious how the two will work together over time.

Catkins at the Art Table

During Spring Break I went for a lot of walks.

One day I found a pussy willow tree that was shedding it's catkins.

I brought home a bag full and decided to put them at the art table this week.

 I added the book Bunny Bunny Catkin for inspiration.

 But the children didn't need it.