Easy Art Activities For A Snow Day Or Any Day (Part 4)

This Part 4 in a multi-part series. Here are the previous posts you may have missed:

• Part 1: Setting Yourself Up For Success: Creating An Art Center in Your Home

• Part 2: Allowing Experimentation and Exploration in the Art Center

• Part 3: Gathering and Using Art Ideas (With Some Fun Projects To Do Now)

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Here's The final installment of this series on encouraging artsy times when you and your children have a day off. I've encouraged you to gather supplies and ideas and let your children play with and explore the art supplies. I also shared a couple of art projects we've been doing in our house during our down times. Now, the final piece to the puzzle: YOU!

4. Stop Cleaning The House and DO ART WITH YOUR KIDS! Specifically: Origami!

I constantly struggle with this one. I have a to-do list a mile long and when the kids are home, it seems as if I clean even more! When they are home on a snow day, I am mopping up puddles of melted snow, picking up four sets of snow boots (again and again!), hanging up snow pants to dry, making cocoa, getting snacks (again?!?), etc. etc. As the day goes on, I find myself getting more and more frustrated as I try to "get stuff done" while the children vie for my attention. So, my advice for you: stop cleaning and play.

Play dominoes, build a snow fort, make a yummy treat, sit and do a craft. The dishes will wait, the laundry will be there later. You'll be spending time with your kids and, let me tell you a secret, after you spend some time with them they MAY even run off and play and you'll have time to fold the laundry. Maybe. If not, you'll relax ad have a good time for a few minutes which is better than yelling "go play!" and fuming while you do the dishes.

One type of art that is great for mommy and me time (with Kinders on up) is origami. I have done origami with all three of my boys and it is fun and addicting! You don't have to have any special paper (you can use copy paper cut into a square) and you can look up directions online for all sorts of awesome ideas! If you are interested in books on origami, your local library will probably have a few and we like the "Origami Kit" with three books from Dover Publications that I featured in this post.

I've seen this kit at AC Moore and Michael's. It is seriously the best!
So great for a holiday or birthday gift!

Here's Number 1 Son creating a sailboat and fish mobile.
Check out the post for that here.

And here's a lovely wreath that will get you thinking "Spring!"
even if it is still 20 degrees and snowing in your area!
Check out the post for this here.

I also picked up this great flipbook by Toshie Takahama called, "Quick and Easy Origami" that is absolutely great! My six-year-old can make many of the projects in the book himself, and we've spent lots of time making dozens of pieces from this book. The kit on Amazon comes with paper so you are ready-to-go when it arrives. Another lovely gift idea!

Toshie Takahama's book called, "Quick and Easy Origami"

Some ideas to go beyond just making random pieces of origami:

• Make a scene with different pieces of origami glued to a background. Take the little doggie from Takahama's book and glue it to construction paper and add some grass, some origami flowers, an origami bird in the sky, an origami fish swimming in a paper pond--use your imagination to create an entire scene made from origami elements. How about making a spring scene? 
• Make tiny origami, or HUGE origami. Origami is created from a square of paper. Once you find a project you like, try using different size squares of paper. We made a samurai hat from a traditional piece of origami paper and then used all different sizes of squares to see how big we could make the samurai hats--could we make one to fit our teddy bear? Yes! We used a 24" square to start with. Could we make a samurai hat to fit us? Yes! We used a square cut from a double-wide sheet of newspaper. Use newspaper or wrapping paper to create the largest squares you can and fold away! And how small ca you go? Can you make a piece of origami from a 2" square? How about a 1" square of paper? Have fun experimenting.
• Make an origami gift. Some of your experiments from above, are great for gifts. Little origami creations make great decorations on cards (send one to grandma to let her know you are thinking about her) and super huge origami can be a gift in itself! Make a wearable samurai hat for your friend--just fold up a super-huge piece of paper into a hat and paint it with tempera paints. Awesome! For a more sophisticated gift, you can use beautifully patterned origami papers to make art that can be mounted on mat board and given to mom, dad, grandma, or a grad for a special occasion. How unique! Here are some great picts of how the samurai hats and shirts can be used to create great pieces of art. I'm planning on making the samurai hat one for my sister for her birthday--I think it looks just like a quilt and she's an avid quilter.
• Amaze your children and make origami from money! Yep, there's nothing like grabbing a dollar bill from dad, folding it into a tiny button-down shirt, and then giving it to your kid. Not only are they amazed at your coolness of being able to make origami from money, they think it's great they tricked dad out of a dollar bill--hee hee! This kept my kiddos busy while we waited for dinner to be served at a restaurant and they had me leave the waitress' tip that way. Just do a search online and you'll see all sorts of ideas for making little creations from money.

Have fun and enjoy this time with your children! I hear this time goes by quickly--it's time to make memories...

Easy Art Activities For A Snow Day Or Any Day (Part 3)

This Part 3 in a multi-part series. Here are the previous posts you may have missed:

• Part 1: Setting Yourself Up For Success: Creating An Art Center in Your Home
• Part 2: Allowing Experimentation and Exploration in the Art Center

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So your children have moved beyond experimenting with art supplies and you need some ideas to engage them? No problem! My solution? Collect, save and access art ideas as needed.

3. Gradually Gather and *Actually Use* Easy Art Ideas

Before Pinterest, I was a ripper. If I saw a cool art or craft idea in a magazine...RIP!...it was torn out and filed away. But that takes up space (which I don't have) and if you are a piler (like me) I'd have to sort through MOUNDS of ideas to find the one I was looking for. If you are a filer, it would be easier, but who has time to file!?

So I love Pinterest. It allows me to pin ideas and categorize them (quasi-filing) and access them later. I rarely rip stuff out anymore (which is helping the clutter a bit).

The point is--gather ideas as you go. If you see something that you think your child may like to do in the future--grab it and file it so you can easily access it in the future. Think easy projects with supplies you are likely to have on hand. Then, on snow days or lazy days at home when you hear the "I'm bored!!" posse coming for you, whip out the ideas and look through them with your child. I often browse my "Art Ideas" board with my five-year-old in the mornings when he needs to create but can't think of something. Sometimes just looking at a picture of a project is enough and he'll run off to the art center and create-a-way. Sometimes I need to get involved and gather some special materials not in the Art Center and walk him through getting started.

We've done a TON of projects this way! It's great because we are actually doing the things I pin (my Pinterest surfing is not in vain!) and he's practicing his cutting, gluing, collage, and painting while being truly engaged since he's the one choosing the projects.

So here are a couple of pin-worthy projects for you to keep in mind for the next day off:

Aluminum Foil Quilt Squares
These are easy and addicting and all of my children were able to do them (even the 2 1/2 year old with a but of help). We mounted a few of them on mat board to protect them and make them easier to display. I found the instructions here at Piikea Street.

Chalk Shapes
This project kept my little ones busy for a while the other day. Cut a shape from cardboard (we used cereal box cardboard), put a little roll of masking tape on the underside to keep it still on your paper and then place it on a dark piece of paper. Trace around it with colored chalk or pastels, then *before you remove the cardboard shape,* gently wipe with tissue to smudge the chalk a bit. Ta-da! Beautiful!

Other Projects to Check Out:

LOVE these Magic Carpets from mnartgal.blogspot.com--they use materials you have on hand and who wouldn't want to make a magic carpet and go to a far off land! Where will YOU go?

And check out these Paper Sculptures from Sharpie Woman! Awesome! My five-year-old made a ton of these last week and even the two-year-old tried her hand at them. They are fun on a shelf or hung on the wall ad are a great way to use up all of those paper scraps you've been saving in your Art Center!

Other ideas to get you started? 

• Use masking tape to "write" your name on cardboard or poster board, paint over the whole thing and then remove the tape for a great sign for your room!
• Try your hand at printmaking using Legos or other found objects around your home (ask mom first!!).
• Make Magic wands or fairy wands or search the web for "Notan" for some paper-cutting fun! I have an easy version of this here with my "Positively Cute I Love You Project."
• Get out the clay and make dinosaur fossils or press found objects like sea shells into the dough
• Make a snow sculpture outside or bring a bin full of snow inside and make a snow sculpture in your house! Or make a snow fort inside for your Playmobil guys or Matchbox cars!
• And of course, you can always search the Create Art With Me site for more inspiration! (Hint hint!)

What are some of your go-to projects for easy fun? Anything you've done that engage your kids for awhile. I'd love to hear about them!

Using Centers at Art Camp

I had read about using centers in the classroom and the idea intrigued me! However, many of my lessons for my 2nd-5th grade students fit comfortably within my one hour class (including discussion and cleanup). So, I filed the idea of using centers away for later.

Using dollar store foil to create sculptures
(You can also supply pipe cleaners to use for arms and legs if you'd like).

Then, I was asked to teach art camp at Peabody Mill Environmental Center in Amherst, NH. I had two sessions: the first week with 5- & 6-year-olds and the second week with 7- & 8-year-olds. There was no set curriculum, so I needed to design an art & nature camp that would fill the time (9:00 am to noon, Monday through Friday) in a way that would allow the children to create art and take advantage of the beautiful, natural surroundings, and allow for free play and exploration. After all, this is CAMP and it is supposed to be fun!

So, the idea of centers came back out of the files!

As you can see in my previously published post on my art camp schedule, we had center time after we did our main art project. I chose to have three centers each day. One center was located inside and was with me. At this indoor art center, students worked on a smaller art project relating to the day's theme such as making clay birds in nests, making a bug bookmark, or doing a craft about tree rings. The art project at the center was one that would take about 10-15 minutes or so.

The two other centers were located outside on a covered patio. They were (sometimes loosely) related to the day's theme as well, but were self-directed play and exploration. I had a helper outside making sure things didn't get out of hand and that no one ran off into the woods, but other than that, the children were free to play at whatever station they were at.

Rules of the Centers:

1. Stay with your partner at your center
2. Play quietly and respect the toys
3. When you hear the bell ding once, it is time to clean up and stand quietly
4. When the bell dings the second time, move to the next station with your partner

Ideas for Centers:

• Blocks (mine were wood-look foam blocks)
• Build-a-bug toy
• Plastic Critters (One day I had a bin of insects and another day I had a bin of reptiles and amphibians) with a plastic bin of water for the critters to swim in
• Cloud dough or moon dough with various molds and scooping toys (too messy for my liking)
• Bubbles
• A fishing game with little fishing poles and plastic fish that float in water for the students to "catch"
• Dauber-type paint pens with large pieces of paper
• Clay (make your own so you can reuse it and keep in plastic bags between sessions). You can have the clay "as is" or give them the plastic bugs to press into the clay or use as reference when making their own bugs from clay

Building with a toy called "Exobugs" allowed the students
to reinforce what we learned about insects and create
some really unique bugs of their own!

How it worked:

Before we started, I walked them briefly through each center, explaining how to clean-up each center. Then we practiced with the bell (the highlight of the day!). Once in a while, I needed to remind a child to stay in his/her center or to finish picking up, but all-in-all it went great! I was able to spend some focused time with the children doing the smaller art project (this was a great time to have the children do a project that might be hard to do as a group due to multiple steps or different paces within the group). Using centers also broke up the "work time" so that the children weren't standing there listening to me walk them through two art projects the whole time--that would have been boring for them and frustrating for me!). By scheduling in some play time this way, the children were able to take a break and play on their own and with their new friends (we also had hikes, played games, and exploration time outside as well).

It was a great experience and something I will definitely do again!

Building blocks was popular with the children and my helper!