Terracotta Warriors

This week we discussed the great Terracotta Warrior exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. The kids had a great time playing with cinnamon playdough to create their own miniature warrior!

Scrappy Recycled Tree

This awesome little tree is made from an old box, scraps of paper and some buttons from the button jar. I think it's charming sitting on the cookbook stand in the kitchen :)

Winter Scenes

Today I read the book Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats for inspiration. This week students are continuing to work on cutting skills. They focused on squares and rectangles in the lower level. In the upper level students experimented with geometric shape as well organic shapes. After their shapes were glued down they added snow with paint using q-tips!

Abstract Clouds and Snowmen

This was a fun project to do with the new snow that has come down. I started by creating the "abstract cloud" and punching holes out. The kids drew and cut out circles to create their snowmen. Each one turned out different especially when they added scarves and hats!

A Triangle Winter Wonderland!

Here is a fun winter shape project to do...
This is a great opportunity to talk through some ideas of how to cut a triangle from a rectangle and how to make the forest scene look like it had depth by making the trees in the background smaller than those in the foreground.
The simplistic triangles made for fantastic forest designs!

Polar Bear Shapes

 

 I had the opportunity to sub few weeks ago. The class was discussing the arctic. I thought it might be fun to do a simple shape project creating polar bears. Here is how one of them turned out!

Triangle Birds

This week students worked on cutting triangles to create a cardinal in a winter scene. Some even fringed the triangles to give them a feathery look!
Happy Holidays everyone!
When we come back from break we will begin working with paints and color mixing!

Thankful Rocks

I saw this some place and wish I could reference where it was but it has escaped me....
Besides being Thanksgiving this weekend was the perfect weekend to do this project for many reasons.
I started by heating up some of our rocks from our rock collection jar in the oven at 200 degrees.
Next, I had the kids take crayons and draw on them. Since the rocks were hot the crayon melted easily. After they cooled and dried we took sharpie and metallic pen to write words of things we are thankful for. It's an awesome little bowl of thankfulness!
I have a feeling we will be adding on. Good thing we have a rock collection to grab from...

Nature Sketching

I just put a basket of clip boards loaded with paper and a pair of binoculars by the back door. The power of accessible art supplies took over without a word....... LOVE it when that happens!

Chihuly Art

My son has been very interested in Dale Chihuly's art lately. Not only does he create amazing glass work but he also wears an eye patch which makes him extra cool to a 5 year old boy. This week I thought it might be fun to do a version of Chihuly art at home. The kids took sharpie markers and plastic silverware and cups and made patterns on them. Next, I put them in the oven at a low temp to melt them like a shrinky dink. They wiggled and curled in the oven and turned into fantastic organic shapes! Then we put them together with pipe cleaners! The pictures don't show them off as great as they are in person! 

Storing Your Childs Art

I have so many great works of art from my kids that I want to hang but don't often have room. I came across this great post on ways to display and/or store your child's artwork at Cool Mom Picks.
There are great ideas here that are not only perfect for storing and displaying artwork but also for gifting some of the masterpieces to grandparents!
Check it out here!

Shape Witches

The kids have been practicing cutting shapes lately. This project is a fun one for the October holiday. I read the book There was an old lady that swallowed a bat before we started. Then we got out a bunch of colored paper. The kids chose which colors they wanted to started with. Next, they cut a bunch of different shapes. Then they eyes, nose, mouth and ears on the pieces of paper. After that they glued it together... and the silliness started!
They giggled like crazy when they put these together!

Make Your Own Liquid Watercolors!

I saw this post on Crafting a Green World and had to share! How many dried up markers do you end up tossing out? Here is a great way to renew/reuse by making liquid watercolors with just rubbing alcohol and dried up markers! I am going to start a "dried up marker collection box". What a great learning experience for the kids! I bet you could color mix too..... oh the possibilities!
Ok, click here for the post! 

Halloween Poetry and Art

 There is a great book called Hallowilloween: Nefarious Silliness from Calef Brown. It has some wonderful Halloween poems with amazing illustration to inspire the best Halloween art.....

Rainbow Nature Walk

We are loving this weather and the beautiful changes in scenery. It is so colorful and with some of the leaves dropping we are able to see new things through the trees!

Here is a little art we did from our rainbow nature hunt. We searched for each color of the rainbow in a nature item. Blue and purple were the most difficult but we did find little berries that were blue and a lovely deep purple leaf.

Fall Reflections

The Fall colors are ammmaaaazzzing this week! The kids and I have been enjoying nature walks and bird watching on the lake. There hasn't been much wind this week which makes for calm glassy reflections of beautiful colors. The view has been great inspiration for reflection watercolor paintings!

 

The colors outside have been inspiring for more than just painting on paper too......

Little Pumpkin Mouse House

Fi has really been into cutting lately. We discuss daily that "you only cut paper not hair"....
We did a little pumpkin project today and it appeared to have a door. So, we made a little mouse to live inside the doorway.

Scribble Crows!

The crisp cool air is a reminder that Fall could be here as soon as tomorrow and Halloween comes with it! We had an at home sick day today with two sniffle bugs. To help pass the time we did a mellow little art project.
The kids started by scribbling any which way they wanted to. Next, I cut out the shape of the crows. Then they glued on button eyes and attached copper wire legs. They look fun and festive! And now it's nap time....

Alley Finds!

 

Our favorite rescued chair has a mate! 

My very creative friend found this in the alley ready for scrapping. 

She gave it to us to match the first one we did! 

Hooray for alley finds! 

Watercolor Morning....

My three year old and I had a delightful watercolor morning. We experimented a little with tape too!
I started by taping off a framed edge for her first painting. She tried putting the tape on in a different direction for the next one. I love arty experiments!

Scarecrows!

 The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum has a creative and fun display of scarecrows right now! We had perfect weather last weekend with sunshine and a cool breeze to explore the arboretum and get inspired for some outdoor art at our house!
Here are just a few.....

Rescued Chair

This chair was sitting in a yard down the road from us for days. Every time I drove by it I wanted to pick it up and turn it into something amazing! One day I drove by and there it was with a "free" sign on it right on the curb. I screeched to a stop and rescued it!
With a little "team work" we brought it back to life! Here are the before an afters-