Garden Art

(Ginette Lapalme, via Collage Collage)

I saw this image a few weeks ago, and right away, I knew we had to do some natural-item painting at the garden with the campers.  One morning, a few raindrops were coming down, so paper-making wasn't going to fit the bill, and that activity was quickly replaced with stick and rock painting.

We offered a variety of objects for the kids to paint, and they also had the opportunity to look for their own items.  We ended up with pieces of scrap wood, bricks, cement blocks...you name it!

Most everyone painted multiple objects, and the next day, they found homes for their items in the garden.  They are hidden under squash leaves, peeking out of wood chip paths, and woven into the mesh on the chicken coop.

I love the bright, neon colors of Lapalme's sticks, and I'd love to offer different kinds of paint, brushes, and perhaps some ways to prompt the kids to add textures.

Little Paintings

Last Thursday, I cut some painting paper into quarters and took out little pots of paint and thin paintbrushes. I've been feeling a little uninspired at the maker's table lately, and watching the children do little paintings was just what I needed.

I feel like I had forgotten all of the things that I would bring to that table and for a few weeks, it was play dough, crayons, group collage, group painting...I was unable to think of what would really engage children at that table.  I hope this means the rut is over: I've planned truly inviting activities for all of this week.  It can be a challenge to be open-ended and provide novelty with materials and aesthetics that really draw the children in.

This particular way of painting makes children look at the paper differently, I think:  that paper is so small compared to what they would typically work with; same goes for the brush and the paint pots.  Making little changes can result in a big change in engagement, and as I've mentioned too many times to count, engagement is always my goal.

Do you ever feel stuck in a rut with your planning?

Homemade Watercolors

I have seen a few things here and there about homemade watercolors, and the time came this week to make some - we were desperate for them in the classroom!  I made them at home from a "recipe" that I found on Whole Living.

I had bookmarked the watercolors from One Golden Apple about a year ago, and I still plan to make those ones.  Those are a bit different, using Fantastix (which are sitting in my amazon cart right now), and we'll be trying those soon.  We'll probably use the ice cube tray again, putting a bit of color from a tube into each part of the tray.

Anyway, I made the paints at home and let them set overnight, and then the children used them the next day.  I was almost giddy when I saw the results!

The paints create vivid colors that drew the children in, some of them remaining to paint page after page .  One thing I have noticed with children and watercolors, especially twos and threes, is that they sometimes get caught up in the water aspect, ignoring or using a minimal amount of paint, and they disengage from their painting because they don't see anything on the paper.  With these paints, I showed them to the children at our morning meeting, making a few marks on the paper myself and modeling how I put paint on the bristles by swiping the brush back and forth a few times.  the texture of the paint deep in the pods is almost magic muck-like, acting like a solid until it is penetrated, and then allowing a paintbrush to dig in deep.  As the morning went on, more and more paintings had a bit of a grit to them, adding a bit of texture.

Overall, I love these paints, and I hope that you'll try them out, too, and let me know how it goes for you!  you can get the recipe over at Whole Living.  With small groups of children or classrooms with extra adult hands to work with a small group, I would definitely recommend making these paints with children, perhaps making them in egg cartons so that children can have their own set to take home.  

Expectations v. What Actually Happens

We painted small wooden cubes.  I found a box full of cubes that all had "J." written on them, and I had not prompted children with a 3D painting experience yet this school year.  This became a real example in expectation and vision versus the children's agenda.

My expectation was that the children would paint the blocks different colors, getting paint on their fingers as they turned them around and over and tried to get all sides.  Then, they would dry, and we would use them for some tabletop construction, or combine them with another material as a prompt. 

But from the very first child that sat down, the agenda was different.  Children began using the paint as a sort of glue, creating towers and other connected structures.

One of the reasons that I was surprised was because we do not have blocks in this classroom.  It makes me a bit sad that we do not have blocks because it has to be my favorite open ended material.  And when we use small table top blocks, like these or others, the children have not been engaging with them.  I have not found the reason why, and it only aded to my confusion when the children began making structures out of these cubes with the paint.

Many of the sculptures fell apart as they dried, and they have become the painted blocks I was expecting, and we'll use them again.  I have to remember that I can plan for our hours and days and weeks, but there will always be an unknown.  Maybe this is because I strive to make all of the opportunities open-ended and there will never be 15 worksheets traced and colored in, looking the same.  For me, this is better.  No one was forced to stay at this table and work for 20 minutes - they did that on their own accord.  They made the material more engaging than I could have planned for!

Colorful Circles

A two day creation; everyone helped.  Tracing, tracing attempts, tempera cakes, spilling water, ripping paper, laughing, more painting, more spilling water, much more ripping - it really is all about the process.  But the product is on the wall.

As a side note, I LOVE Tempera Cakes.  I cannot recommend them enough!  I bought one tray to try them out with the children, and it went really well.  In the future, I'd like to use ones that are just the cakes to mix and match in the tray so that children and teachers can pick and choose a few colors rather than have all of them.  But these were great.  

I have been neglecting this space a bit and focusing on the classroom blog for the parents.  So here are two photos of our community mural that the children have been working on.  Our big, beautiful spread will be finished tomorrow.

Art for Haiti

After the earthquake in Haiti, one of the Kindergarten teachers organized a fundraiser for our Early Childhood Center.  Children were asked to make a piece of art in the Haitian Naïf style, and the pieces were displayed and then purchased by donation by families at the school.

We spent a week on the project, starting by talking about were Haiti is, what an earthquake is, and what happened.  I chose not to show them images - some parents did at home - but I did not do that in the classroom.  The children talked about things falling down, and their initial reaction was to send glue and tape to fix the houses and the schools.  A part of me wishes that I could have supported their exploration of help and charity, but we were getting ready for the February break, and the project that was organized was a great way for them to get involved right away.  Perhaps we will be able to explore service learning later.

We looked at many paintings and talked about the themes and the colors, and then the children glued small copies of the paintings that they liked into their sketchbooks.  We used our sketchbooks all week as our place to get ready, and late in the week, the children chose a painting that they had liked all week and drew with black pen.  The idea was to help keep them on theme and have the artwork nearby, so we could talk about colors and objects and what, perhaps, to draw.  Every child's piece came out original, and reflected their personal style, with inspiration from the Haitian artwork.  I'm grateful that we were able to help in some way, and that the children were able to have this experience.

 

  

  

  

 

More Painting

Today we tried out ice cube trays with red, yellow, blue, black, and white each in their own compartment. In small groups, I showed the children how I wash my brush, and wipe it on the side of the water jar, and then get my new color. The ice cube trays also offer an excellent feature : extra compartments for colr mixing, without everything getting all muddled up.

Some children are very big fans of changing the water constantly. No harm done - I think its just like how some people don't like having their hands stay dirty.

I'd like them to experiment with color mixing, too -- I don't want to give them instructions. I think we'll explore color mixing a bit more. But the ice cube trays with the primaries and black and white give them the message that if they want anything other colors, they're going to have to explore and try a bit. And there is only a little paint in each compartment, so if things get muddled up, there isn't much waste.

I don't see this as the be all, end all of painting with tempera. Every child is different, every classroom group is different, and every painting is different. But this is an interesting technique, expecially with a small group. It really felt like a studio time, with every child engaged in mixing and painting -- even those who never choose painting during free choice.

What des painting look like in your classroom? Anything you're trying? Anything you don't like?